Journey To The Land Of Lightening
by X-ShikaTemaLuv-X
Summary: Two people that hate each other have to go on a long diplomatic mission to a land far away. Will they be able not to kill each other? Or will something romantic ensue instead? OC x Kankuro. First story, I hope you like it!
1. Prologue

**Journey to the Land of Lightning: Prologue**

~X~

She never thought she was going to die like this, not on a diplomatical mission. She didn't think she was going to die trying to make the guy she liked jealous.

She must've been really dumb to get in this kind of situation. She shouldn't have done this. It was stupid of her.

"I'm going to kill you. You're going to die tonight, Mikkay."

No, please, no.

She didn't want to die. She wanted to live, to have a family when she got older.

She needed help.

"Ah," she gasped. Her cheek stung. Blood? Oh, no. This was it. She needs help. She needs—

"Kankuro!"

—him.

**A/N: Hey! Sorry this first chapter was short. It's just the prologue. I promise that all the other chapters are way longer in length. (:**

**The only thing here is that there is a lemon in this story. Don't worry, it's way at the end. I even have a warning in the chapter to tell you when it's coming. You don't have to read the lemon to make sense of what happened. I made it its own chapter for that convinience. This entire story has already been written, so I'll update it when I can. **

**Thanks for taking a look at my story (: I really hope you enjoy!**


	2. Chapter 1

**Journey to the Land of Lightening – Chapter One**

-X-

"Ugh," Mikkay groaned. "You're a pig, you know that? A disgusting, ignorant _pig_!"

Kankuro smirked. "At least I'm not the one covered in mud."

She scowled at him. How dare he? That dumb boy made her fall into a tub of dirt, so now she was covered head to toe in it. She was SO not in the mood for a mud bath.

"Kankuro, that was uncalled for." Temari reached down and helped Mikkay out of the mud tub. "You shouldn't do that to her."

"Yeah, you tell him," she grumbled. "That disrespectful brat deserves a bys load."

"And you deserved the mud bath."

"What did I do to you?!"

"Guys, stop!" Temari screeched. "Why can't you two get along?"

Mikkay scoffed. "Impossible. Now," she grabbed a towel, "I'm going to find something to wear home because he RUINED all I have."

"Bathing suit?" he suggested.

"Don't have one with me!"

"Not that one. The one you bathe in."

She swatted him on the back of the head. ("Dirty Perv!"), and walked off to take a shower.

After that shower, she left. She was too embarrassed to go back. Kankuro is such a pervert it's sickening. The spa lends her some clothes—they have to be dry-cleaned before returned—to wear home.

If she had parents, they'd probably be pissed. But she didn't have to worry about that. Her mother died when she was a child. Her father was long gone. It was only she in the house now.

After the short walk home, she goes inside and changes out of her clothes. She had to take a bath—she still felt crusty from the mud bath.

"Stupid Kankuro," she grumbled as she slipped into her bath. "That dick wad."

Kankuro has always been a jerk to Mikkay, and she had no idea why. What did she ever do to him? Nothing that she can remember. He was just mean to her for no reason. She didn't deserve that.

There was a knock on her door. She sighed, getting out of the bath as a voice called her name. "Mikkay Saigo. Your presence is requested in the Kazekage Tower."

"Coming," she said. "Let me put some clothes on first. You know, unless Gaara wants me to see me naked, which I doubt."

She heard a chuckle. _Haha,_ she thought._ I made Gaara's staff laugh. Score!_ "Very well. Be there in the next five minutes."

"Understood."

She dressed in her casual clothes—short skirt cut to the side; short-sleeved V-necked shirt; fishnets on her legs and arms; her hair up; and ninja sandals. After dressing, she left her house to go to the tower.

When she got to the Kazekage's office, she saw Kankuro and Kazekage-sama there. She glared openly at Kankuro as she greeted Gaara.

"Good afternoon, Kazekage-sama. Kankuro."

"Mikkay," he answered. "Did you like your bath?"

"Oh, shut up before I make you."

"Both of you, quiet." Gaara sighed.

"My apologies," she said.

"It's all right," he replied. "Now, I need you skills for a diplomatic mission."

"About?"

"Suna wants to be allies with Lightning. Their people would be very useful in an alliance with us. We're sending you to go the three and a half day travel and request an audience with the Daimyo. Negotiate with him and try to reach an agreement."

"Yes, sir."

"Sucks to be you," Kankuro said.

"Shut up, Kankuro," she growled before addressing Gaara again. "Why is he here anyway?"

"Because," he explained, "he's going to be your escort."

Surprised silence passed between the two before all hell broke loose.

"What?" they both gaped.

"Gaara, can't you assign someone else?" she requested. "I don't work well with him."

"We've never worked together," Kankuro said.

Mikkay glared at him. "My point exactly."

"There's no one else to do this job, Mikkay," the redhead told her. "You're just going to have to deal with it."

She groaned. "Fine. When do we need to leave?"

"Noon."

"Can I go?"

"Sure."

With that she left for her house. She packed her stuff and changed her clothes. Groaning to herself, she departed and waiting at the gate for Kankuro.

_This,_ she thought, _is going to be one painful mission._

-Chapter One End-

**And with that, we have the conclusion of chapter one! Now, I realize that Kankuro and Mikkay hate each other…don't worry, though! There is a reason for that! All will be revealed in due time, but for now, this is what it is. I apologize if Kankuro's, Gaara's, or Temari's character is OOC or anything. I'm trying my best here. **

**Remember, reviews make me happy!**


	3. Chapter 2

**Journey to the Land of Lightening**

Chapter 02

"Ah!" a girl's shrieking voice could be heard echoing throughout the forest. "Kankuro, will you please wait up for me? You are supposed to be escorting me there, not leaving me in your dust to find my own way."

"You sure?" he asked. "Cuz I like the second option a whole lot better. If I did that, maybe I wouldn't have to listening to all your annoying complaints."

"Oh, shut up!"

"Ha, is that really all you can say to me?"

"No! You are the most sorry excuse for a man I have ever seen. You are rude and vulgar and you know nothing about how to treat a lady!"

"So?"

"And," she continued, "you are a lousy, dumb ninja!"

"What do you know about being a ninja? You're just a diplomat, and a pacifist. You wouldn't understand anything about what it means to be a ninja."

"I know enough to know that you're bad at it."

"Oh, please. You're just trying to find something to insult me about. I hate to break it to you, but it isn't working."

"You insolent ignoramus!"

"What does that even mean? You're making up words now."

"I am not! You're just too dumb to know when someone is calling you a buffoon."

"Well now I know what it means."

"Hey, wait up! Didn't I just get done yelling at you for leaving me behind, and then there you go doing it again?"

"It's because you annoy me. Stop complaining and speed the fuck up."

"I'm going as fast as I can! I'm not a ninja like you are!"

"I though you said that I was a lousy ninja?"

"Oh, just shut up, stop walking and wait for me, will you please? I don't want to get separated."

"I didn't realize you liked me so much, Mikkay."

"You know what I mean, damn it. Just wait, please."

And, to her surprise, the stubborn ninja that she hated actually waited for her. She got over to him as quickly as she was able and paused beside him.

"I'm not going to lie, I didn't think you actually would wait for me," she told him.

"I just was tired of hearing your complaining put on extra loud," he said. "And besides, I'm pretty sure we're disturbing the animals."

"Ugh," she groaned. "I hate you."

"That," he said, "I am aware. Now come on. We have to keep moving. So keep up, will you?"

Mikkay growled as she climbed up the hill she and her escort were walking on, pushing the branches away from her face with her hands as she did. This yelling and fighting had been constant from the moment that they had left Suna. It had been six hours, and they were still fighting. The rest of the trip was not looking bright.

"Come on," he said, still waiting. "Pick up the pace. I'm not getting any younger."

"And you're not getting any more mature either," she said, "so I really don't see the difference here."

"Stop arguing with me, and just keep walking. Do you really want to be miserable the entire three and a half day trip to the Lightening Country?"

"Well, I'm with you, aren't I?" she asked. "I'll be miserable either way."

"Ow," he feigned hurt. "That one stung, Mikkay. Don't you like me?"

"Not a bit."

Kankuro smirked. "Okay, now tell me how you really feel, huh?"

Mikkay rolled her eyes as she got over to him. One of her hands was grasping a branch to try to keep balance. The other was free. So, with her free hand, she whacked Kankuro in the chest.

"Was that supposed to hurt?" he asked, eyebrow raised. "You do know I am a ninja so I have a high pain tolerance, right?"

"Whatever," she said. "It felt good to me."

"It was probably because you had your hand on my sexy built chest."

"Eww," she groaned. "No fucking way. That would never be my reason. I hit you, so now I'm happy. That's it, you pig."

Kankuro chuckled and starting walking again. He started getting further and further away from her. The forest was thick and it was becoming more and more difficult to see him from where she was.

She growled at him. "Come on, Kankuro," she started saying. "Are we really going to have this same argument about you leaving me behind all the way there? If you would just – Eek!" She was cut off by a hand grabbing at her wrist and tugging her backwards. She turned her head to see that there was a caravan of thieves behind her. Mikkay called out, "Kankuro, help!"

One of the men covered her mouth. "Be quiet, you little twerp," he said. "All we want to do is take your jewelry and supplies. Your ninja friend doesn't need to know you're here."

"Yeah," another one laughed. "You'll be back with him in a minute after we take your things.

_That's supposed to reassure me?_ she thought. _These people are terrible._

She started kicking and writhing from the thief's grasp. Her struggle was making the man grunt.

"Will someone please sedate her?" he said, trying to get her to stop. "She's a fucking wild one."

One of the men started walking over to the both of them, when suddenly he froze where he was.

"Hurry it up," the man trying to contain Mikkay commanded. "She's going to get free."

"I-I would love to," he said, "but I can't."

"And why not?"

"Cuz," he said, "I can't move. My body won't let me."

"What?"

Suddenly, a large black figure swiftly moved across the field where she was. The man that was holding her was hit with some sort of kunai, and she was released from him. And then she was grabbed again. Confused, she looked to see who it was as she was being moved from the center of the field to somewhere off to the side.

"Kankuro," she said.

"Hold on," he said as he put her down. "I'll be right back. I have to take care of the rest of them."

Quickly, he went back to where the thieves where and he attacked them with Crow and the Black Ant. Mikkay watched in amazement as Kankuro did as he said he would – take care of the thieves that had taken her. A few laid dead as the end of the battle came. A lot of them ran off, screaming as they went.

_Wow,_ Mikkay thought. _I didn't know he was that good of a ninja. I'll have to give him more credit next time._

Kankuro came back over to her, and leaned down. "You okay, girly?"

Mikkay scowled. "Don't call me that."

"I see you're fine," he chuckled.

For a moment, he just kind of looked at her, causing Mikkay to blush slightly. "What?' she asked. "Is there something on my face?"

"No," he said. "But your arm is bleeding."

Mikkay looked over to her right arm. Sure enough, there was a small trickle of blood coming from a cut she had two inches below her shoulder.

"That must be from the kunai I shot at the guy holding you," he said. "Damn, sorry. That was what I was trying to avoid." Kankuro started going through his pack for bandages. "I'll take care of that."

Mikkay just looked at him blankly. She watched as he pulled out a roll of bandages and some disinfectant from his pack. "Did you just apologize to me?" she asked.

"Huh," he said. "Guess I did. Strange." He sat down next to her and started to unravel the bandages. "Hold out your arm, Mikkay."

She did as she was told, and Kankuro started to apply the disinfectant to her cut. "Ow!" she said. "That stings!"

"That means it's working," he said. He finished with the disinfectant and started to wrap her arm a few times with the bandages. "There," he said. "All done. Now don't mess with it, or the bandages will fall off, and I'm not going to wrap that up again."

She rolled her eyes. "I'm not five."

"No," he said, "but you're seventeen and immature." He stood up and waited for her to do the same.

"I'm more mature than you!" she said, standing up herself.

"Ha, okay. Whatever you say, girly. Now, come on. We need to keep going."

They started walking again, and it was silent for an hour or so. They had stopped arguing. Kankuro was waiting for her now, she's guessing because he doesn't want to have to go through the trouble of saving her again. Soon enough, the sun was starting to set.

"How bout with set up camp for the night?" he asked.

"Sounds good," she yawned.

"You have food in your bag for you to eat, or do you need to catch some?"

"I have food."

"There's a lake not too far from here," he said. "You can go there if you need to take a bath or something."

"What about my bandages?"

"I'll just re-bandage you."

"I thought you said you weren't going to do that."

"There's a difference between having to redo your bandages because you messed with them and having to redo them because you took a bath."

"Whatever you say."

That night went without further incident. They ate then Mikkay went to taker bath. After that, Kankuro re-did her bandaging.

"I'm going to bed," she told him.

"Okay," he said.

"Night."

"Night."

And with that, Mikkay fell asleep.


	4. Chapter 3

**Journey to the Land of Lightening**

Chapter 03

The next day, Mikkay awoke early to the sound of the birds chirping. All was peaceful in the forest. The only sounds that she could hear were the sounds of nature. Well, all she could really hear was the beautiful sounds of the nature that surrounded her and the snoring coming from the boy in the tent next to her.

Kankuro had been snoring for most of the night. She thought it was amazing that she was able to sleep with that racket going on next door. Hell, she was even surprised and amazing that Kankuro, let alone, could sleep with all that noise. Like, damn.

Mikkay exited her tent and stretched. It was early. Dawn must have barely passed her by two hours. She should be sleeping since she still has two and a half long days of walking with the behemoth that she had to travel with.

_Well,_ she thought, _I guess he isn't that bad. After all, he did save me yesterday from those thieves._ She knew it was his job to protect her from harm on the way to and from Lightening, but she was still very thankful for it. Without him, she probably would have been kidnapped, or whatever. The Sunan diplomat was very grateful and she was looking for a way for her to show Kankuro her gratitude.

"I know!" she said to herself, then blushed. She forgot for a moment that he was sleeping. She hoped that she hadn't woken him up from being too loud. "I'll make him breakfast," she said just a little more quietly. "Yeah, that's it. Breakfast. It's the least I can do."

Carefully, Mikkay walked away from the campsite. As she passed Kankuro's ninja gear, she paused. _It wouldn't hurt for me to carry one of his kunai with me while I go and search..._ she thought. _I really don't want to risk getting attacked again, and not having any sort of defense on me._ So, she grabbed the kunai and went on her way to start searching for things that she could make as food. Now, it wasn't that she wasn't a very good cook – on the contrary, from her living by herself, she had become quite the little chef from having to prepare her own food. So, no, it wasn't because she couldn't cook. It was more that she wasn't much of a scavenger. She could barely find anything there in the forest for her to whip up into a meal.

After a while, she sighed to herself. "This is going to be impossible," she groaned. "I'm no ninja, and I'm not a scavenger either. How in the world am I supposed to find food in this blasted forest?" She was still walking, and not too long after she had muttered that to herself, she had come across a lake. The girl squealed. "Fish! I can fish!" Having her excitement being renewed, she ran over to the lake, and then she stopped. Now, she knew that because she was probably going to have to get wet, she wasn't that naïve to think that going fishing wasn't going to get her wet. She looked at her bandaged arm. "I'll have to have him rewrap my arm when I'm done making breakfast," she said. "I'm going to cook for him, so he'd better not mind or I'll kill that bastard."

First, Mikkay took off her skirt and her tank top, leaving her standing in her sports bra that was covering her bra and her fishnets. She also took off her shoes. She didn't want to ruin them with the water. Carefully, she unwrapped her bandages. As she glanced at her arm, she saw that it was a slice, but a not very deep slice. In fact, it was barely more than a cut. Though, she supposed that if Kankuro was so worried about it, she would just have to humor him with it.

Even from a few feet away from the lake, she could still see plenty of fish swimming around in the lake. There were plenty for her to make Kankuro and herself a decent size breakfast. Now all she had to do was find something that she could catch the fish with. She knew that her hands aren't able to do the job on their own. Then she saw the glint of Kankuro's kunai that she had taken coming from the pile of her clothing. She could certainly use that to catch a fish or two!

She grabbed the kunai from the pile and then she walked into the lake water. The lake water was cool against her olive colored skin. It wasn't really that hot out, but she was still warm, so the water was very relaxing to her.

At first, the fishes were being unreasonable and she was having a hard time catching a single one – even just a small one! Then, after a while, she started getting the hang of it. Miraculously, she was able to catch three fish. She decided to give Kankuro two of them, and to only leave herself one. She didn't mind it, because she wasn't that hungry and she thought that he would want to have two instead of her. Whatever, he deserves the extra fish.

The girl put her clothes back on, and walked back to the campsite. Having her skin wet from being in the lake provided her a nice cool feeling across her skin from the gentle breezes that the wind was creating. It felt so good.

Kankuro woke up when she was about almost done preparing the fish. When he saw what she was doing, he looked amazed. "Whoa," he said. "What's with the fish?"

"It's breakfast," she told him. "I hope you like fish, because that was all I was able to get. If all civilization came to an end right now, I would probably die because I am incapable of gathering any sort of food from the forest. It's that bad."

Kankuro laughed. "That, I can believe." He came closer to the fire she was currently cooking over and sat down. "So you went out and caught fish for breakfast?"

"Yepp."

"How did you get them without some sort of, like, knife?" he asked.

"I didn't," she stated. "I took your kunai for protection just in case, so I used it to catch the fishies."

"And why are you making breakfast?"

"I just thought it would be nice for me since, one, you were sleeping. And two, you saved me yesterday, so I thought I should at least try to make it up to you. This was the only way that I thought of."

"Okay," he said, "one last question."

"What's with you and the interrogation you're performing on me?" she asked.

"One last thing, I swear."

"Fine, what is it?"

"You had to go into the lake to catch the fish, right?"

"Yeah…"

"Otherwise you wouldn't have been able to get any fish, right?"

"Yeah..? What of it?" She didn't know what the ninja was trying to get at here.

Kankuro smirked. "So why aren't your clothes soaked? Did you jump into the lake naked?"

Mikkay blushed. "No, I did not!" she defended. "I just took off my top layer and went into the lake with my fishnets on! Not naked!"

"Fishnets, huh?" he asked, still smirking. She blushed when she realized what she had just admitted to him. "Sounds sexy."

"You pig!" she said, blushing a dark shade of scarlet. "How would you like it if I didn't give you any of the fish? I could just eat it all for myself, you know!"

"No, you couldn't," he challenged. "You're stomach is too tiny for that."

"Try me." She took one of the fishes that were on the sticks and she brought it steadily to her jaw.

"Fine," Kankuro laughed, "I'm sorry. Can I have some fish?"

She smiled, feeling achieved as she handed him the fish on a stick she was about to take a bite out of.

"Hey, your bandages," he said as he was chewing. He stared at her arm. "Your bandages are off."

"Yeah," she said. "I had to take them off since I was about to dive into the water." She grabbed one of the other fishes on a stick and started to delicately eat one.

"Do you need me to redo them?"

Mikkay paused her eating, resting the cooked fish on her lip. "If you want," she shrugged. "They're really not that bad, you know." She continued to eat.

"You still need to have them wrapped up. They'll get infected."

"Okay, mom." She rolled her eyes. "Here," she said, handing him the last fish. "This one is for you."

He took the fish. "You didn't catch another for yourself?"

"Nah, I don't need it," she said. "I'm not all that hungry, any way."

"I told you you couldn't eat three fish all by yourself."

"Oh, whatever."

After they were done eating, they started to gather up their things. Mikkay got done eating first since she only had half a fish left as compared to his one. He watched her as she started to try to put the tents down.

"Hey," he said.

She turned. "What?"

"Thanks for the food. You didn't have to make it. Helping you is my mission."

She went back to putting one of the tents down, turning her back away from him. "I know, but I thought it would be nice of me."

He laughed. "Conceited, much?"

"How is that conceited?" she asked. "Do you need a dictionary, or something? Because I'm pretty sure you don't know what that word means, or how to use it."

Again, the ninja laughed. "Whatever."

They were out of the campsite in less than ten minutes. Kankuro was a quicker worker than she was and got more things put away and taken down. They left as soon as the fire was put out.

The forest was full of blooming flowers and large trees surrounding a narrow path. The path was most likely formed from the ninja that often had to make commutes through the forest to get from one country to all the others. There was enough room for barely two people to walk. In order to give Kankuro room that she was pretty sure that he would want, she walked slightly behind him in the path. It wasn't far enough away as to where she could not see him in front of her like it was when they had started traveling together. She saw little scrapes on the higher branches of trees that intrigued her as she was walking. Mikkay guessed that ninja would most of the time use the trees as transportation and not bother with the path unless they were like Kankuro and escorting someone or multiple somones that could not travel using the trees like they could, and that was probably why the marks were on the branches.

As Mikkay was looking around at the forest around her, she forgot to pay attention to the path she was walking on. She tripped over a stray root that was laying across the ground and did a face plant.

"Ack!" she said, getting a mouth full of dirt.

Kankuro stopped and looked behind him. Contrary to her, he had been paying attention to where he was walking and carefully avoided the large root that was in the way. She, however, seemed to have not. He laughed at her.

"Wow," he said. "That's impressive."

She blushed and pulled herself off the ground. "Shut up," she said, wiping herself clean of the dirt. "I'm not a ninja – walking around in a forest is not something I do often! I live in Suna, for God's sake! There is no forest!"

Kankuro laughed at her again and, when she was ready to go, started walking again. He looked back to her and she could see him smile.

_Huh. He looks cute when he smiles…_

Mikkay blushed at her thoughts.

_Nope, never mind. He's so not cute! What am I thinking?_


	5. Chapter 4

**Journey to the Land of Lightening**

Chapter 04

"Okay, Mikkay," Kankuro said, "you can stop complaining now."

The girl in question scoffed. "I have not been complaining. I have simply been stating what was bothering me. Like this walk, for example. I hate it."

"Complaining, whining, stating what's bothering you or whatever, you can stop that now," he told her. "We just crossed the boarder into the Land of Lightening."

"Yay!" she said, jumping into the air gleefully. "How much longer until we get to where we're supposed to be?"

"I'm pretty sure it's about three days worth's walk," he said.

"Awesome."

Ever since the breakfast incident, Kankuro and Mikkay weren't fighting as often as they were at the start of the mission. Or as loud and vile, either. There wasn't much conversation passing between them any more, but it was better than them being at war, as they were. To fill the silence, Mikkay was saying whatever was on her mind. Most of the time, it would be that she didn't like this walk and wanted to sleep somewhere with a mattress and do her business somewhere with running water. It had been a few days since she had made him breakfast, so she would suppose that Kankuro was tired of hearing her go on and on about the lack of restroom.

She decided that for a while she would just walk with her escort without noise and conversation. She was sure that she was annoying Kankuro, and, for some reason, when she thought about her doing that, it made her want to stop. She didn't know why she was so considerate about this kid's feelings. It wasn't like she had feelings for him, or whatever. Mikkay supposed that she was just being the nice person that she knew she was.

It was late afternoon when it started sprinkling. Mikkay's body started to feel rigged as she wrapped her arms around herself. _Oh, no,_ she thought. _Not this. Not now!_

"Ugh," Kankuro groaned, holding out his hand. "It's raining."

"I know," she answered quietly.

"And by the look of the clouds," he said, looking up at the sky, "it's going to start pouring really soon."

"Terrific…" she said, shivering slightly. Her voice was barely over that of a whisper. Kankuro looked back at her, his eyebrow raised with intrigue.

"Are you all right?" he asked as the rain started picking up. "You look…sick to your stomach."

"I'm fine," she whimpered. The rain was harder than it was before and they were just standing there in the middle of the path. She shivered then tightened the hold her hands had on her arms. She knew this wasn't good, but she didn't want to worry him. It was nothing that he needed to worry about.

"Are you sure?" he asked doubtfully. "You look sick."

"I said I'm fine," she insisted.

Kankuro opened his mouth to argue, but wasn't given the chance because he was interrupted by the loud thunder clap. Mikkay screamed and she bent forward slightly, covering her ears with her hands as response.

"Mikkay?' he asked. Lightening flashed and the thunder clapped again. She ran over to the sheltered niche in a tree nearby, curling up in fatal position.

Kankuro followed the girl into the niche shortly after. The niche was just large enough the fit the both of them. He wasn't really thinking about the niche, though. His thoughts were more concerned with the girl that was trembling within it. He had never seen her look this frightened. She was usually so confident. To see her trembling from fear instead of anger was something he just wasn't used to.

"Hey, you okay?" he asked her, placing his hand on her back to comfort her.

She shook her head slowly no.

"What's wrong? Are you scared of storms?"

"N-no," she said. "It – it just brings back bad memories, is all."

"What kind of bad memories?" he asked her.

The thunder clapped and she went tighter into her ball. "It's nothing," she said.

"Bullshit," he told her, lifting her chin up so she can look him in the eyes. "It's obviously not nothing. Tell me what's scaring you, Mikkay. You can tell me. I won't mind."

She gulped, taking a large breath. "O-okay. W-when I was really young, my mother was out on a mission. I was being taken care of by Granny Chiyo since my father died near my birth. My mother was returning to Suna and it was raining really heavy. She should have stopped and waited until the storm passed before starting on her way home, but she didn't. Sh-she didn't want to wait. She wanted to see me as soon as possible…" She paused, taking a ragged breath. "So she went during the storm. A few days later, we got word back from her team when they returned that she had gotten trapped by a fallen limb. She died that night," she said, tears brimming her eyelids, "and all because she wanted to see me. I don't like thunderstorms. They remind me of how m-my mother died."

"I'm sorry, Mikkay," he told her.

"It's not your fault…"

The thunder clapped and lightening flashed. She curled up into her ball, trembling like a leaf in the wind. Kankuro didn't like seeing her like this. It was so un-Mikkay-like and he hated it. He put his arm around her shoulder and pulled her into his chest tentatively. "It's all right," he said to her. Her face rested on his chest and she curled into him. "You're okay. Don't worry. I'm here."

They sat like that until they both fell asleep, Mikkay still resting in his arms.

**A/N: Hey guys! Sorry this chapter is so short The next one will be longer, I promise. This chapter was just needed, and there was nothing else I could put in this chapter without it getting off track in a way. Thanks for checking out Journey to the Land of Lightening so far! Your support is much appreciated (:**


	6. Chapter 5

**Journey to the Land of Lightening**

Chapter 05

Through the opening of the niche, the morning light shined upon Mikkay's sleeping eyes. She closed her eyes harder to try to keep the light from getting through as much as possible. It didn't really help much, though.

_I guess it's time for me to wake up then, _she thought. _But this tree is so comfortable. It's amazing. I didn't even think I tree can be this comfy. It makes me not want to leave. _She snuggled up to what she was laying on, keeping her eyes shut. _Maybe a few more minutes then._

"Mikkay," she heard Kankuro say. "Get up. We need to get moving. It's time to wake up."

In a flash, her eyes open and she saw what she was laying on. It wasn't the tree at all. In fact, it was actually Kankuro's chest that she was using as a pillow and had been for the entire night. The girl scrambled up and away from him, her face burning. He just looked at her, his eyebrow raised. She waiting for him to tease her, but that teasing never came.

"Come on, Mikkay," he said as he stood up out of the niche. "That storm really set us back. We should start walking. I know you probably want to get to the Daimyo as soon as possible, so we'd better not waste any more time."

She was shocked, to say the least. She thought for sure that he would make some dirty and rude remark about her sleeping on him. I mean, he usually did. He didn't this time, though. She found it strange, but that didn't mean that she was complaining about it. Getting a break from his crude humor was something that she wouldn't mind having.

"You coming?" he asked, holding his hand out for her outside the niche. Tentatively, she took his hand and he pulled her up.

"My clothes are wet," she told him, as if it wasn't already obvious. The niche's opening let in a ton of water from the storm. They were both soaked.

"We'll just have to deal with it, I guess," he said. "It's not like we are carrying a laundromat with us."

She sighed. "I guess you're right."

Together, they started walking. The walk was quiet, like it was the last time, but Mikkay was having a hard time concentrating. Her inner thoughts kept drifting back to the previous night and what Kankuro had done for her. He comforted her about her fear. She told him about what had happened with her mother. She's never told anyone about her mother. No one knew about it that didn't have to. Not even her best friend, Temari. But, for some reason that she couldn't pinpoint, she had told Kankuro, who she doesn't even like most of the time. She didn't know why she had told him her secret. All she knew is that she did and now her head was spinning. She was just so confused.

She thought about this, staying quiet through the entire walk with Kankuro. The other thing that she kept thinking about was their wet clothes. They were getting awfully uncomfortable and heavy. She wanted so much to get out of them.

"My clothes are killing me," she groaned.

"I know," he agreed.

"We have got to change, or something," she said. "We're going to get sick."

"If I remember correctly," he told her, "there's a town not too far from here. Maybe we can stop there and have our clothes washed."

"That sounds amazing," Mikkay sighed happily. "Come on, let's hurry. I want to get to that town quickly. I'm in a desperate need for a change." She started to speed walk passed him. In response, Kankuro chuckled and started walking to keep up with her. When she heard him catching up with her, she broke into a sprint.

"Oh, so that's how it is?" he called to her.

Laughing, she called back, "Yepp!"

Mikkay kept on running. She thought that she had made it way further ahead and that Kankuro wouldn't be able to catch up with her. She slowed her pace a little, trying to catch her breath. Suddenly, the boy appeared in front of her. She screeched, having been frightened.

"How did you do that?" she asked, panting partially from her run and partially from the scare.

Kankuro laughed. "Ninja, remember?"

She cursed, having forgotten his unfair advantage. "Damn you."

He laughed again, and started walking. She followed after him, jogging a little to catch up with him. When she did catch up, her pace matched his and they walked side by side. It wasn't long before they arrived at the town.

"Look," Kankuro pointed out. "We're here."

Mikkay saw that the town was like what she had seen in Konoha the many times that she had gone there over the years with Temari for diplomatic duties. She would go to Konoha with her when she was trying to learn how this diplomatic duty worked. Sometimes she would go with Temari so her friend could hang out with her unofficial boyfriend, Nara Shikamaru. Temari denied that they were going out or anything more than friends, but every one else that she had asked about her friend's strange relationship with that boy said that they were in love and didn't know it. Even though she had only hung out with the two a few times, she could understand where Shikamaru's and Temari's friends – Yamanaka Ino, Inuzuka Kiba, Akamichi Chouji, and other Chunin that they were friends with – were coming from. They definitely looked like they were in love. She knew that it was only a matter of time before they started to date. All their friends were dropping hints left and right.

"Where do you think that the laundromat would be?" she asked Kankuro.

"Somewhere around here," he answered.

She rolled her eyes. "Well, that's specific."

"Oh, shut up," he said. "I'll ask."

"No," she said, "I'll do it." She was tired of feeling that helpless feeling that she got when he did things for her. She was an independent woman and, damn it, it was about time for her to start acting like it. She walked over to a woman that was walking down the street. "Excuse me, miss," she said, gently tapping her on the shoulder. The woman turned to face her. "May I trouble you by asking where a laundromat would be? My escort and I need a change of clothes."

The woman pointed off to the left. "It's down the street, then you take a right and it's there," she told Mikkay.

"Thank you," she said.

She smiled. "No problem."

Mikkay turned to Kankuro. "It's this way," she said. "Follow me."

It took only a minute or so for them to get to the laundromat. They walked in, and immediately the lady at the counter gasped a little.

"Oh, you children look so unkempt!" she exclaimed. "Were you caught out in the storm last night?"

"Yeah," Mikkay answered, wrapping her arms around her waist. "We were."

"You poor things," she said.

"Can you wash our clothes for us?" Kankuro asked the lady behind the desk.

"Sure," she said. "Would you like a change of clothes to wear until they're done?"

"Yes, please," Mikkay answered. _Wouldn't want to go around wearing nothing but our birthday suits._

"Come to the back," she directed. The two followed her to where pair of changing rooms and a bunch of clothes were on hangers. "You can pick anything out of here that you like to wear, as long as you return them when your clothes are ready."

"Okay, thank you so much, ma'am," Mikkay smiled.

The woman nodded. "No problem. Give me your dirty clothes on your way out." And, with that, she walked back to the front of the store.

Kankuro and Mikkay looked around the racks. There was one with men's clothes hanging and one with women's clothes hanging. Mikkay, after looking carefully through all the options, pulled out an outfit that she wanted to wear. She went into the changing room with her clothes and stripped herself clean of the dirty garments that she wore. The room had a long mirror and a bag of brushes and combs. _Damn,_ she thought. _This woman came prepared._ She put on her clothes that she was borrowing and took a brush. She put down her hair and brushed it out; situating it so it looked good with the clothes she borrowed. After she was done, she walked out of the changing room with her dirty clothes in hand.

Kankuro was already waiting outside the dressing rooms for her. She took a quick glance over at what he had decided to wear. His outfit was a navy blue shirt match with a forest green pair of shorts. He wasn't wearing his face paint, which was something that she didn't get to see all that often. She thought he looked good, so she told him so.

"Thanks," he said. "I like what you're wearing, too."

Mikkay was wearing a dark purple tank top with thin straps and a short black skirt. She kept her fishnets on, so she was wearing those too. "Thank you," she said, smiling.

They went up front and gave the woman at the counter their clothes. She told them that they would be done the next day.

"I guess we're going to stay here over night," Mikkay said.

"I guess we are," he echoed.

"So, what do you want to do?" she asked him.

"I don't really care," he said. "Anything you have in mind?"

"How about we get something to eat?" she asked. "I'm starving."

"Sounds good."

The two walked around the town, looking for a place where they could buy themselves food. Mikkay didn't have any money on her, but Kankuro did. They got to a teriyaki shop, and he bought both her and himself some food. After they ate, they started walking around the down, basically window shopping. At one point Mikkay saw a really pretty bracelet in a jewelry store that they were looking at. The bracelet was a charm bracelet and it had a purple heart on it that was really sparkly and a charm of village symbols. You could chose which village symbol you wanted and there was a Sunan one there.

"That is so pretty," she sighed. "I want it so bad."

"What is it?" Kankuro asked.

"That charm bracelet," she said, pointing to it. "Do you see it?"

He nodded. "Yeah, I do."

"It's beautiful, and it has my favorite color on it, as well as the symbol for Suna," she said. "I really wish I had money on me right now so I could buy it. Oh well, though, I guess," she sighed.

"Can I help you?" the clerk asked.

"No," she said. "We're just looking."

"Yes, actually," Kankuro corrected her. She looked at him, confused. "Can I get that bracelet?" He pointed to the bracelet that she was just admiring.

"Sure." The man took it out of its case. "Do you want it?"

"I do," he said. He then bought it right then and there. After it was in his hands, he turned around and placed it in hers. "There you go," he said. "That's for you."

"Oh, my goodness," she said. "Did you just buy this for me?"

"Yeah," he shrugged. "You wanted it and I had the money. It was nothing."

Mikkay smiled brightly. "Thank you so much!" Without thinking, she wrapped her arms around his neck and gave him a hug. Awkwardly, he hugged her back. She realized what she was doing a second later and quickly jumped away from him. She blushed a little and looked down. "S-sorry," she apologized. "I got carried away."

"That's okay…" he replied, blushing a little himself. "Let's go find somewhere for us to sleep," he said. "It's getting late."

"Okay," she agreed.

They got to a hotel and asked the manager for two separate rooms.

"I'm sorry," he apologized. "We're all booked up right now and only have one room left. Would that be all right with you instead?"

They looked to each other, as if asking without words if that was okay. Mikkay shrugged and Kankuro looked back to the manager. "Yeah, that's fine."

The manager led them up to their room, giving them the key. They got inside and saw that the single room had one bed and a couch.

"Here," Kankuro said. "I'll take the couch."

"No," she said, "I don't want you taking the couch because of me. I can sleep on the couch and you can have the bed."

"No, I want you to have the bed."

"No, you should have it."

"No, you should."

"Okay, how about this?" she said, tired of the pathetic argument. "We both take the bed. You can have one half, I can have the other, and as long as we each stay on our own respective side, then we shouldn't have an issue."

"If that's what you want," Kankuro replied. Mikkay growled to herself. First he's being difficult and now he's indifferent? He should really pick a side and stick to it.

"It is," she said. "Now, I'm going to take a shower. Be back in a few."

Half an hour later, Mikkay returned wearing her night clothes. She had them earlier and she would have worn them if it wasn't for the fact that she felt stupid if she was wearing her pajamas all day. Kankuro was wearing his night clothes as well which consisted of, what seemed to be only pants.

"Don't you own a shirt?" she asked, drying her hair with a towel.

"It suffocates me at night," he said. "I get too hot."

"Okay," she said, averting her eyes from his muscular chest. He was well built, one of the many perks of being a ninja, she noted. She started to climb into the bed. "Don't try anything," she warned, "or I'll kill you in your sleep."

He scoffed at her. "Two things. One: as if you would be able to. Two: like I would ever do that."

She smacked him on the back of his head and turned away from him as she was laying in bed. He turned off the light and ten minutes later she heard his breathing even out, him finally fallen asleep. She turned back and looked at his sleeping form, biting her lip softly. Something was bothering her.

_As if he would ever? Well, not that I'm complaining, but why not? What's wrong with trying something with me?_


	7. Chapter 6

**Journey to the Land of Lightening**

Chapter 06

In any other place and at any other time in her life, Mikkay would have thought that the way she woke up was all right or really romantic. Where she was now and at this point in time, it was just plain awkward. She found herself with Kankuro totally not respecting her half of the bed or her personal space. He had his arms wrapped around her waist and, she hated to admit it, but it was oddly comfortable. She knew she had to get him off, though. It was kind of weird.

"Kankuro," she whispered, squirming. "Get off of me." She tried to get away from him, but when she pulled away, she was pulled right back, and closer than she was before. Instead of being a few inches away from him, the diplomat found herself right up against him. His chest was pressed into her back with his arms around her waist tight. Also, this time she was close enough to him to feel his morning wood against her ass.

"Kankuro, let me go!" she demanded. "I know you're awake."

The ninja pulled her closer to him again, refusing to let her go. "No, damn it," he said.

Suddenly, she thought of a way that would probably get him to let go of her. It was rash, but damn it, she had to do something to make him release her. This was getting awkward. She groaned in her mind. _I can't believe I have to do this,_ she thought. _This is humiliating._ Swallowing every ounce of respect she had for herself, Mikkay leaned a little back and started to grind against the boner touching her butt. Kankuro groaned, his grip loosening a little bit. She took that as an opening for her to free herself. She jumped up and away from him, her face flushed. She then started yelling at him.

"What the hell is the matter with you?" she scolded. "Why the fuck did you do that?"

Kankuro shrugged his shoulders, looking at her lazily. "You were comfortable and you were there."

"That's no reason to do that!"

Frustrated, Mikkay stormed off to the bathroom, wanting to take a shower and change so they could leave this damned town. Behind her, she heard Kankuro laugh. She scowled.

"How dare he?" she muttered, getting undressed. "That was so…gross!" She didn't have any other word for what just happened. Though it wasn't really that gross, it was all she got.

She looked at the bracelet that he had bought her. She had accidentally left it in the bathroom the night before on the sink so their it lay. It was so weird. Kankuro was like three different people. The nice one that bought her this bracelet and comforted her during the storm; the one that she was so used to having back at Suna; and the one that she had just experience – the one that was trying to seduce her, it seemed. Why couldn't he just pick a side that's actually him and stick with it? This was getting so confusing.

Fifteen minutes later Mikkay came out of the bathroom wearing the clothes she wore the previous day. She and Kankuro were supposed to go back to the laundromat and pick up their regular clothes today, the sooner the better. She entered the bedroom were Kankuro was lying on the bed, already changed back into yesterdays clothing. He looked at her and smirked.

"You look hot," he told her.

She looked at him and frowned. "What is with you lately?" she asked. "You've been acting so much differently than you usually do. Why are you being nice to me? And why the fuck are you trying to seduce me, or whatever that was? We hate each other, remember? That's not the way you're supposed to act."

Kankuro stood up, the expression in his eyes unreadable. He walked towards her and grabbed her wrists. She tried to move away from him, but she was too mesmerized by the look he had. She was too busy trying to figure out what was going on to move away. He tugged her by the wrists and moved them close together. His eyes bored straight into hers and she flushed. He looked so serious that it was getting her flustered. That and he was so close to her again. She could feel his warm breath on her skin.

"Let – let me go," she said. "This isn't funny."

"What if I don't want to let you go?" he said.

Her response to that was a stomp down hard on his foot. He shouted out in pain, which she thought he pretty much deserved. She did not appreciate being man handled.

"Damn it, Mikkay," he swore. "It was a joke. I was kidding. Why can't you take a joke?"

"You don't kid around with someone like that!" she shouted. "I don't want you to fucking touch me." That having said, she stormed out of the room and down to the lobby. She didn't stop until she got outside. That's when she realized that she didn't have a clue where she was going. She hadn't the choice but to wait for Kankuro, as much as she hated it.

Kankuro was down not too long later. He looked at her, but they exchanged no words. She was pissed and he wasn't too happy either. Silently, they walked back to the laundromat. The same woman that had given them their clothes was back that day, too. Maybe she owned the shop.

"Oh!" she said. "I remember you two! Your clothes are ready."

"Thank you," Mikkay said. "May we have them so we can change in the back?"

"Sure thing, little miss."

The woman left their clothes in one pile on the counter. Mikkay grabbed her clothes and started to head for the changing rooms in the back, not bothering to wait for her escort at all. He followed shortly after. They changed in their separate changing rooms, no words being exchange between the two.

They then left after paying the woman. She looked at them with a slightly worried look on her face, but she didn't say anything. It wasn't any of her business any way.

There was less than two days left in their journey to the land of lightening. She only had to deal with him for a week more, tops, and then she was done. Hopefully she could last that long.


	8. Chapter 7

**Journey to the Land of Lightening**

Chapter 07

By the next day, Mikkay and Kankuro had made up. They both silently agreed that the things that had happened the past two days would not be talked about. They had been walking until about noon before Mikkay asked to stop, wanting to swim in the lake they were passing by. Reluctantly, Kankuro said that she could. He didn't want to fight with her, so if it was something that really didn't matter one way or another, he let her do it. Anything to keep the peace.

She was roaming around the lake wearing some under shorts over her fishnets and a sports bra. She swam, enjoying the feel of the cool water against her warm skin. The girl paused, looking over at Kankuro, who was sitting over at the edge with only his feet in the water. It was no fun to just be by herself in the lake, having no one to interact with.

An idea formed into her head, and she smirked to herself. Time to have a little fun. She went close to where Kankuro was sitting and she began to splash him with water.

"Hey!" he said, covering his face. "Stop that."

"No," she giggled, splashing him some more.

"Then I'll make you."

Kankuro took off his shirt and then jumped into the lake. He started chasing after her. Mikkay squealed and waddled away from him in the water. She kept running away from him, but her catch was inevitable. Being that he was a ninja and she was not, he was way faster than she was. In less than five minutes, he caught her by the wrists. He moved them behind her back, forcing her awfully close to him. Their bellies touched and they were pressed together.

Mikkay looked up at him, her face flushed from the chase. They were so close together that she could feel his breath on her and she was sure he could feel hers on him. She felt electricity from him and he just looked so good. Her body acted without consulting her mind first. She found herself leaning towards him and placing her lips upon his. The diplomat kissed him.

At first, Kankuro was shocked at what had just happened, but he too acted without thinking and began to kiss her back. He let go of her wrists in favor of wrapping his arms around her waist to hold her against him. After he let her wrists free, she moved them up to his neck and wrapped her arms around him. Fingers interlaced into his hair gently and they kissed each other deeply and passionately. Their lips glided against each other in sync. The kiss felt so familiar and welcoming – they opened their mouths and tongues started to slide against each other as well.

Feeling the passion of the kiss, Mikkay pulled a little at Kankuro's hair, tugging it gently but hard enough to make him groan. His fingers caressed the small of her back, making her moan softly into his mouth. He liked the sound of her moaning; it turned him on. He wanted it to hear her do it again, so he began to run his hands up and down the curves of her waist. She let out a higher pitched moan than she did before. He thought it was sexy. The next time that his hands were going down her waist, he let them drift even more south and then grabbed her ass. She moaned, pulling him more against her. She could feel his hard on rubbing her inner thigh.

That was when her mind started to catch up with her. When she realized exactly what she and Kankuro were doing and where it was going, she began to panic. She jumped away from him, pushing him into the water. Quickly, she ran back to land. Kankuro was basically sitting in the shallow part of the lake, looking at her with questioning eyes. Her face was flushed from both the passion and the embarrassment. Her lips were a little swollen and red, most likely caused by the kissing.

"Please forget that," she said to him. "That never happened."

_What the fuck were we doing?_ She asked herself. _If we had gone any further, we might have… Oh my, god, how did this happen? I didn't mean to –_

Kankuro stood up, a hardened look in his eyes. "What do you mean it never happened? Why should I forget that?" He began to walk towards her.

Mikkay began to panic even more so than she was before. "Just please forget it. Don't come any closer." She backed up a little.

"You like me," he accused. "Don't you, Mikkay?"

"L-like you?" she stuttered. "No, I don't! I don't like you. We're not even friends!"

"You know what?" he said. "Prove it."

"Prove what?" she asked.

"I want you to prove to me that you don't like me."

"How the hell do I do that?" she demanded. "You don't believe me when I tell you that I don't. What else am I supposed to do?"

"Kiss me," he said. She looked at him like he had just grown another head, which totally would have been possible. "I want you to kiss me like you mean it, and then tell me that you don't like it. If you can honestly tell me that, then I'll believe you."

Mikkay scowled and walked over to him. "Fine. I will." She then pressed her lips against his and kissed him, not holding back anything. Her body was against his, her arms wrapped around his neck again. She clawed at his back, wanting to hurt him. After a minute, she pulled away from him.

"There," she said. "I kissed you, I meant it, and I didn't feel a thing. Now do you believe me?"

"I didn't feel a thing either," he spat at her.

She glared at him, then turned away, going back to where her clothes her. She put her regular gear back on and came back to the lake. There Kankuro was with his shirt back on and his pants legs already rolled back down. He stood there waiting for her.

"Come on," she said. "Let's get going."

Again, they started to walk away together in silence. The cloud was only a day away. By tomorrow, she would be in the land of lightening. The mission was at least a third over.


	9. Chapter 8

**Journey to the Land of Lightening**

Chapter 08

"Welcome to the Cloud," the man at the gate greeted the two. "May I check your IDs?"

They separately handed the guard their IDs and waited for him to check them. No words passed between the two.

"Everything looks certified," he told them, handing their IDs back to the respective person. "You can go ahead in."

Kankuro and Mikkay walked forward into the Cloud. There was distance between the two, though. They did not walk next to each other, but with a foot of space away from the other. It had been that way since the lake incident a few days before. She didn't talk to him and he did the same. The silence between them was deafening.

They got to the Daimyo's office a few minutes later. Mikkay asked the secretary if she could be granted an audience with the Daimyo.

"The Daimyo is a very busy man," the secretary told her. "What makes you think that he would be able to spare the time to see what a little girl like you wants?"

"I am no 'little girl,'" she told the woman behind the desk. She plopped down her identification as a diplomat onto the desk. "I am the diplomat from Sunagakure and I am here to request an audience for peace negotiations between the nations."

The woman blushed, embarrassed by her mistake. "I-I'm so sorry," she told Mikkay. "I didn't know who I was speaking with. My apologizes."

"Obviously," Mikkay replied, impatient. "Now may I see the Daimyo?"

"I'm afraid that you can't," she said.

"And why not?"

"The Daimyo is all booked up for today," the secretary explained. "But I can schedule you a meeting with the Daimyo at noon tomorrow. If that's okay with you," she added, looking down nervously.

Mikkay sighed. "That's fine. We'll see you tomorrow then." She turned around and walked right out of the office, not bothering to see if Kankuro was behind her following. Behind her, Kankuro stood there for a second, bewildered, before continuing on with her. He had never been at the liberty to be able to see Mikkay at work as Suna's diplomat. It was really interesting to see her at work like that. She was assertive in a way that he had never seen her be. It really was fascinating to see her in a new light.

He followed the girl out the door, staying a few feet behind her as she walked. Yes, they were still mad at each other and no longer speaking, but that didn't mean that they weren't going to finish the mission that had been given to them. A few minutes later, the two arrived at the front door of the apartment complex that they were to check into. The Cloud were not fond of using hotel services, so there were no hotels but there were a surplus of apartments where people that were visiting could afford to stay at for however many nights that they had to stay. The system was different in the Cloud. They made it work where you would not have to rent the apartment by monthly intervals, but pay per day at the front desk.

Mikkay went into the building first, followed shortly there after by Kankuro. She goes to the lady at the desk and asks if she has any two bedroom apartments available for her and her "ninja escort" to stay for a few days. She was rented a cheap two-bedroom and two-bath apartment on the third floor. The girl thanked the woman, took the key, and started for the stairs. They got to there room, and started to unpack their things into their respected bedrooms. The process didn't last any longer than twenty minutes since they didn't have many things with them. Mikkay felt the need to take an actually shower while she was still in a building with running water, so right after she had finished unpacking all her supplies and clothing, she practically ran to the bathroom. Kankuro waited for her to finish with the water, and then he took his own the moment that the water had stopped. He took a shower in the other bathroom, careful not to run into Mikkay – especially while she had yet to put her clothing on. If he thought that she was mad at him now, wait until he accidentally saw her naked. The diplomat would tear him apart, limb from limb.

By the time that everything was done, it was about around five. They had nothing else to do. Mikkay's audience with the Daimyo was scheduled for the next day, so they had no meeting to attend. They were just in the apartment doing nothing. Kankuro watched television in the living room area of the apartment. He looked really bored from what she could tell as she looked over at him from the kitchen. She sighed softly to herself as she went through the shelving in the cabinets. There was nothing there that she knew how to make. Yes, she knew how to cook, but the cuisine in the Cloud was different from Sunan cuisine. She had no idea how to whip up some food for her and her companion to eat. She had to eat something, though. She was so freaking hungry, she couldn't stand it.

"Kankuro, get off that couch," she commanded, the first words that she had said to him in about twenty-four hours. It kind of made her wince inside her conscious. Really? That was going to be the first words that she says to him? She should have made it count.

"Why?" he said, not looking away from the television.

"I'm hungry," she told him.

"And what does that have to do with me getting off the couch?" he asked her.

"Because you're taking me out to eat."

Kankuro snorted. "No, I'm not."

"Uh, yeah," she said. "I beg to differ. You're taking me out to eat, Kankuro."

"I'm not your boyfriend," he said. "I don't have to do that."

The sensation of the two of them kissing hit her as she said the word boyfriend. She quickly shook it off, though, and kept talking. "You may not be my boyfriend, but you are still my escort. You are supposed to provide for me and protect me while on this mission. While you have protected me much, you have yet to fulfill my basic need of having food. So yeah," she said. "You're taking me out to eat."

Kankuro rolled his eyes, but got up nonetheless. He knew that she had a point. "Smart ass diplomat," he said under his breathe.

"What was that?"

"Nothing," he said. "Come on, I'll take you out for ramen."

About ten minutes later, the two arrived at a quaint little ramen shop in the middle of the town. The shop wasn't crowded at all when they got there. Mikkay went in and right away chose a spot at the bar where she wanted to sit. Kankuro sat down beside her, and they waited for a server. They didn't have to wait to long. Not even a minute later, a perky brunette waitress appeared.

"Hi, there!" she greeted. "My name is Keiko, and I will be your waitress for this evening. How may I help you?"

"I would like to have some mushroom miso ramen," Mikkay told the waitress.

"And I would like chicken miso ramen," Kankuro ordered.

"Chicken miso?" Mikkay asked. "That's so boring."

"Shut up, woman," he said. "It's what I like. Mushroom is disgusting."

"No, it isn't."

"You're eating fungus."

"So?"

"Okay!" Keiko interrupted. "So one order of mushroom miso and one order of chicken miso?" They nodded their heads. "Awesome. I'll put these orders in and they'll be right out."

She left to go help some other customer that had just walked in. After her leaving, the two found that there was still a slightly awkward air that hung between them. Mikkay hated that they weren't talking. She didn't know why, but it bothered her a lot. She knew that they were fighting because of her. She was the one that initiated the kiss. She was the one that pushed him away. So, yeah, she knew that she was at fault. What she didn't understand was why it bothered Kankuro so much. It wasn't like he liked her or anything. Oh, well. All she knew was that it bothered him, and that was all that she needed to know. She knew that she needed to make up with him.

"Hey…Kankuro?" she said quietly.

He turned to face her. "Yeah?"

"I'm sorry about yesterday," she told him. "I messed up. I should have never kissed you."

"Why did you kiss me?" he asked.

The diplomat blushed. "I don't know why. I just did. And then I freaked out about it and I –"

"Pushed me away," he finished for her.

"Yeah… and I'm sorry for that."

"Don't worry about it," he said.

"Are we okay?" she asked him.

"Yeah," he said, not looking at her. "I guess we're fine."

Mikkay smiled. "Yay. That's great."

Kankuro returned her grin with a half smile. "I guess so."

"Okay," Keiko said, having returned with their order. "Chicken miso for the man and some mushroom miso for the lady. Enjoy your meal, guys. I'll be back if you need anything else."

"Okay," Mikkay said. "Thank you."

The two ate their meal in mostly silence. As Mikkay ate her meal, she noticed that Kankuro wasn't really paying attention to anything around him. Some one had bumped into him, and he didn't even notice. It was like he was lost in thought. She was slightly worried. To get him out of his little funk, she poked her finger into her noodles and then wiped it on his face.

"Eww," he said, moving away from her. "What the fuck was that for?"

Mikkay laughed and shrugged. "I felt like it," she said.

He took a napkin and wiped off his face. Then he took another one, dipped the corner into his noodles and rubbed it all over her face.

"Ew!" she squirmed. "That was nasty!"

Kankuro just laughed at her. "Don't dish it if you can't take it."

Keiko walked passed them behind the counter and laughed. "Now guys, you're supposed to eat your food, not play with it."

"Sorry," Mikkay said.

"I'm not," Kankuro told her. "You started it. You should be sorry."

She stuck her tongue out at him. "Whatever."

"Do you need anything else?" Keiko asked them.

"No," she replied.

"I'm going to head back," Kankuro said, standing.

"What?" she asked. "You're leaving me here?"

"Don't worry," he said. "You'll be fine."

"That will be two dollars for the ramen," Keiko told him.

"I'm paying for hers, too," he told her.

"Oh, okay. Four dollars then."

Kankuro quickly paid the bill and then headed out of the shop. Mikkay turned, watching him as he left.

"So what are you two doing here in the Cloud?" Keiko asked her. "You two definitely don't seem like you're from around here."

"Oh," she replied, "that's because we're not. You see," she explained, "we're from Suna. I am a diplomat that is supposed to have a meeting with the Daimyo about possible peace and alliance between our two countries."

"Oh, that's cool," she said. "What about him?"

"He's my ninja escort," Mikkay told the waitress. "Good thing I had him, too. I was almost kidnapped on the way here."

"Fun," she snorted.

"You bet."

"So is there anything going on between and your ninja escort?" Keiko asked.

Mikkay sputtered. "Wh-what?"

"Like, are you two dating?" she clarified.

"N-no, we are not dating."

The waitress frowned. "Awh, that's a shame. Tell me, do you like him?"

Mikkay looked at the ground, blushing slightly. "I don't know," she told her. "It's really complicated. We didn't even like each other as people when we were in Suna, but now that we're on this mission together, I feel like we're getting closer. It's so weird. I don't know how I feel anymore. I don't even know if he considers us friends."

"I don't think you have to worry about whether or not he thinks about you as a friend," she smirked. "It's so much more than that."

She looked at the waitress, confused. "What do you mean by that?"

"Well," Keiko said, "I think it's fairly obvious that boy likes you."

"H-how do you figure?"

"A lot of things," she said, "but it was the way that he looked at you that really gave it away."

Curiously, Mikkay asked, "How was it that he looked at me?"

"He looks at you with a hint of love in his eyes," she explained. "He looks at you like he would jump in front of a bus for you, like he would do anything for you. But he also looks sad."

"Sad?" she questioned. "Why's that?"

"Probably because he knows that you don't know how you feel about him," she told Mikkay.

Mikkay felt bad. She didn't know if what Keiko was telling her about Kankuro was true, but if it was, she felt bad that she was causing this boy agony. Kankuro didn't deserve that. It was a shame that Mikkay was just so confused. She didn't know what she should do about this whole thing.

_I'll talk to him tomorrow about it,_ she decided. _Just to see what he says about it._


	10. Chapter 9

**Journey to the Land of Lightening**

Chapter 09

It was the next day, and Mikkay had just finished getting dressed for her meeting with the Daimyo. She was wearing a navy blue skirt that came down to her mid-thigh – just appropriate for a meeting of this appointment of this importance – and a short-sleeved black shirt. It was a v-neck, but it did not go far down enough tot show anything inappropriate. She looked very professional, which was very much expected for the diplomat of Suna.

She walked into the living room are and found Kankuro lying down on the couch watching TV again.

"Don't you do anything else besides lie around and watch television?" she asked him, sighing.

"Yes," he answered. "I do a lot of things. Being a kick ass ninja is one of them."

She rolled her eyes. "The only time that I've seen you be a kick ass ninja is when you were saving my ass. Other than that, I have yet to be impressed."

Kankuro scoffed. "Whatever, Mikkay."

Mikkay smiled at that. She then bit her lip. Something was on her mind.

"Say, Kankuro?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you remember that waitress that we were talking to last night?"

"Yes," he said. "What about her?"

"She told me this interesting theory that she had…"

"Um, why should I care?" he asked, eyebrow rose.

"It was about you."

"What about me?"

"She told me that you liked me." There, she said it.

"So you're accusing me of liking you now, are we?" he said defensively.

"I-I'm not accusing you," Mikkay told him. "I'm just telling you what she said."

"Fine," he said, eyes narrowed. "And why does she have this theory that I like you?"

"She says it's the way that you interact with me and the way that you look at me."

"The way that I look at you," he said. It was not a question. "That's stupid."

Mikkay blushed and looked at the ground. He was annoyed, she could tell. Maybe Keiko was wrong after all. Maybe Kankuro didn't like her at all; he just barely liked her as a friend. All she was is someone that he is on a mission to protect. That's all.

"Forget I said anything," she told him. "You're right. It's dumb. Let's just get going."

They got up and started heading down the stairs and out the door to the Daimyo's office again. Mikkay didn't know why, but all she could think about was how badly Kankuro had reacted to what Keiko said she thought. Was it really that bad to maybe possibly like her? Was there something wrong with her that made her unlikable that she was yet to be aware of? Why the heck did this bother her so much? Kankuro was only a friend, and barely a friend at that. So what they had kissed a few times. So what that he was sort of kind of cute. So what that he had saved her butt. So what that she kind of thought that he could like her. So what? It's not like she had feelings for him, or anything like that. He was just her ninja escort. The only reason that she was with him was probably because Gaara thought that they needed to get over that animosity that they had held for each other, and that they did.

Together the two arrived at the Daimyo's office right in time for the meeting. Mikkay went to the front desk where the secretary from the day before was sitting once again.

"I'm here to have an audience with the Daimyo and his council," she retold the woman. "Mikkay Saigo, Sunan diplomat. Remember me?"

The woman blushed. "I do. The Daimyo is ready, as you wished."

"Thanks," she faked smiled. "Pleasure doing business with you. Come on, Kankuro." She began walking towards the doors that lead to the main office.

"I'm afraid that your escort has to stay out here," the secretary told her.

Mikkay turned back and stared at the woman. "And why can't he come with me?"

"Authorized personnel only," she clarified. "The ninja has to stay out here."

"But he's supposed to watch me," she told the woman. "And don't you know who he is? He's the son of the late Fourth Kazekage. And the brother of the current one. Surely he's authorized to come into the hall with me."

"It's fine, Mikkay," Kankuro told her. "Don't worry about it. I can stay out here."

"But –"

"But nothing," he said. "You go do your diplomat stuff. I'll stay out here."

"Are you sure?" she asked warily.

"That diplomat stuff bores me anyway," he said.

"Okay… I'll see you when I get out then."

"See you."

Mikkay walked into the office and found a table of people sitting there, waiting for her. Sitting at the head of the table was the Daimyo. She bowed her head.

"I hope I'm not late," she said.

"You're not," the Daimyo told her. "We had only just sat down. You're perfectly on time."

She stood up straight and smiled. "That's good to hear."

"So what did you call this meeting about, little girl?" one of the councilmen asked her.

Mikkay frowned. "I'm not a little girl, sir," she said. "I am the diplomat of Suna. I am here because the Kazekage wishes to form an alliance with the Cloud. He wants to longer be at ends with this fine country. Instead, he feels that we both can flourish as nations if we align ourselves with each other."

"What will Cloud get from this if we agreed to join in this alliance?" a woman on the council asked.

"We will come to the Cloud's aide if they were attacked by any other nation," she told them. "We can send ninja to help fight off enemy forces and food for the people if needed. The Sand plans to help in any way possible."

"The Sand has always been the enemy of Cloud," a blond man said vilely. "Why would we want to change that now unless you want something from us?"

"The only thing we want is peace," she said. "Peace and aide if we need it."

"Aren't you currently in a long-standing alliance with Leaf though?" asked the same man skeptically.

"Yes, we are," she answered.

"Then you are in no need of having an alliance with the Cloud," he said. "The Sand must have ulterior motive in this so called alliance."

"I can insure you that Suna has nothing ulterior planned with the negotiation of this alliance. All we want is to no longer be your enemy. We see nothing that either of us can gain from holding a grudge between our two nations that is now nothing of the past. If we can put our petty differences behind us, then we believe that we can become a very powerful alliance."

A few of the men and women on the council nodded, having been swayed by Mikkay's words. After about an hour of more deliberation and negotiations, most of all the council was onboard for being in an alliance with the Sand. There was, however, one man that she had the most difficulty trying to convince. The blonde man seated near the Daimyo was against the alliance and appeared to not be able to be convinced. Mikkay was beginning to think that she would never be able to get the peace negotiations done. As the time neared 2:30, Mikkay was beginning to get tired. Finally, the Daimyo spoke, calling this council meeting to an end.

"The council is to meet tomorrow," he told the room. "We will listen to the Sunan Diplomat's last word to convince us, and then we will go into deliberations on peace. Whatever majority rules will be the new ruling. Tomorrow we meet here, at noon. You are now dismissed."

After the Daimyo finished telling everyone the details on the meeting, everyone began to file out of the room. Mikkay waited until mostly everyone had left the room before she exited. She did not like to be caught in crowds. As a diplomat, she was taught that the prime place to be injured or stolen away was in the middle of a crowd of strangers. In order to protect herself, she liked to stay out of them. She had yet to be stolen away in the middle of a crowd.

She left the room and found Kankuro still in the lobby. She smiled when she saw him sitting there in his outfit that strangely resembled a kitten.

"It's so good to see a friendly face," she told him. "But since I don't really have that, your face will have to do." She grinned at him teasingly.

"Ha, ha," Kankuro laughed deadpanned. "You are such a riot."

"I like to think so," she giggled.

"How did the meeting go?"

"I think that I managed to convince a lot of them that the peace pact with Suna would be a great idea. There are still a few that haven't been convinced yet, though. I think I can manage to get them. There's another meeting scheduled for tomorrow," she informed him. "I'm supposed to say my final words and then they will deliberate."

"That sounds like a lot of work," he told her.

"Yeah, well, it's a part of my job," she replied, shrugging. "I do this a lot. One gets used to it."

Kankuro nodded, seeming to get what she was saying.

"So what do you want to do today?" she asked him. "I'm not really interested in spending the whole time cooped up in the apartment."

"We can walk through the town," Kankuro suggested. "You know, like what we did the last time we had to spend the entire day in the town."

"Are you going to buy me another bracelet?" she teased him.

"No," he said. "Do you still have the one that I bought you?"

"Yeah," she replied. "I left it on the bedside table in the room. I didn't want to give the impression to the council that all I cared about was Suna or that I was a flimsy girl. It's not good for business."

"Oh. Cool."

"So," she said, "we should probably get going. It's already three o'clock. I want to be able to have seen most, if not all, of the town."

Kankuro groaned. "I should have never suggested this," he joked.

"Oh, whatever," she said. "Which way do you want to go?"

First the two of them decided to head to the shopping district. They found that there were a ton of people that sold things in the middle of the street. There were many, many different things that were sold. Some of those were flowers, pots, vases, cards, child's games, jewelry, clothing, and many other things. It was really spectacular. Despite what Kankuro had said earlier about buying Mikkay something, he still ended up buying her a few things. He bought her a pinky ring. It was purple and sparkly. He also bought her a white lily. She milked him with that one, telling him that it would be the only time in a long while before she saw, let alone could buy, another flower – hello? They live in a desert.

After they went by that street market, they headed to the arcades. Mikkay wanted to win herself a prize. It was really too bad that she was god awful at most of the games. Kankuro ended up being the one to win her a prize. She was kind of sour that she couldn't win herself a prize, but she was thankful that he had decided to give the one that he had won to her. It was very sweet of him, she thought.

They went out to eat afterwards. Mikkay giggled to herself during it, knowing that this was near the end of a long line of her burning a hole in this guy's wallet. She was beginning to wonder when he was going to start complaining about her spending all his money. She knew it was going to come at some point.

She didn't know exactly when, but at one point them just hanging out started to feel like they were on a date. Mikkay blushed at the thought. There was no way that she could even consider this a date. He was just showing her a good time, wasting time and wasting his money. It was okay that he was spending it, because he was really wealthy. She just got the insane feeling that in any other situation, the moment that they got home, this would either end with sex or a kiss. Her cheeks burned red at the thought. Her kissing Kankuro? As if that would ever happen. Neither of them felt like that. It was really impossible.

"All right," Kankuro said. "It's beginning to get late. We should probably start heading back to the apartment."

"Right," Mikkay agreed.

"Besides," he said, looking up at the sky, "I think it might rain."

Sure enough, half way to the apartment complex, thunder began to roll. Mikkay shivered and wrapped her arms around her waist, but she kept on walking. She knew that the faster that she got to the apartment, the faster she could get out of this storm and curl up in her bed under her blankets. Well, the apartment's bed and blankets – same thing, really.

Rain started coming down not to long later. At first it was kind of slow, but then the rain started to come down faster and a little harder. There was no lightening, but thunder boomed occasionally and the sky was really dark. Mikkay stopped where she was in the middle of the walk way and got herself into a ball as best as she could as she was standing.

She was shaking so badly, Kankuro noticed. The storm must be scaring her a lot. He went over in front of her, trying to soothe her. "It's okay," he said to her, gently grabbing her arms and getting her out of her ball. "You're all right. I won't let anything hurt you."

Mikkay looked up and caught his eyes in a steady gaze. Water was running down his face, making his face paint run as well. Streaks of purple ran down his face, but he didn't seem to care. He was too focused on making sure she was all right. She reached up and, using her half wet sleeve, wipes his face where the face paint is running down. Their faces are close and they are still looking at each other dead in the eyes. There is a sudden crack of thunder that causes Mikkay to yelp. She jumps a little and folds herself into Kankuro's arms for comfort. He holds her there.

"Come on, Mikkay," he says to her. "Let's get you back to the apartment. I'll lead you there." Kankuro grabs her hand gently and then leads her to dry patches that are underneath shop ledges. He walks her, hand in hand, back to the apartment. Luckily, it is only a few streets down and they didn't get too wet.

Kankuro takes her inside, and he can tell that the girl is still terrified. She is shaking like a leaf constantly. It begins to worry him. She starts to go off to her room, but he stops her for a moment.

"Mikkay," he said. "If you're still scared…you can sleep in my room tonight if you want."

She looks at him, biting her lip. "Would that be okay?"

"Of course," he said. "I'm the one who offered. And besides, I wouldn't want to leave you all alone when you're terrified like this."

She smiles at him. "Thank you, Kankuro. That means a lot."

"Don't mention it," he says. "Now you get changed. I'll wait out here for you."

Mikkay goes to her room and quickly changes into her pajamas, which is a pair of boy shorts and a white tank top. The tank top isn't too revealing, and the boy shorts she doesn't really care if she wears around Kankuro. She doesn't mind him seeing her like this.

When she gets back to the living room, Kankuro is still there waiting like he said he would be. He takes her to his room, and together they sit on the bed. Kankuro gathers her into his arms, and she curls up into them. She falls asleep to him stroking her shoulder softly with his fingers and with him telling her that she's okay.


	11. Chapter 10

**Journey to the Land of Lightening**

Chapter 10

_Everything is black and Mikkay is surrounded by darkness. She's scared and doesn't know what is going on. Where is she? Where's Kankuro? What's going on?_

_She calls out his name, wanting to find him. She was so alone and it frightened her. She needed him. She needed for him to hold her and tell her that everything is okay, like he usually does._

"_Kankuro!" she calls out. "Where are you? Say something back if you can hear me. I'm scared."_

_She's silent as she waits for some sort of reply that will let her know that Kankuro is near. A minute or so passes, and there is still no reply from Kankuro. Everything is silent. Everything is dark. She's here, absolutely alone._

"_Kankuro!" she yells again. "Where are you?" Tears begin to slick down her face. "I need you…" she cried. "Kankuro!"_

Mikkay gasps, waking up from her dream – her nightmare. It was so scary.

"Are you all right, Mikkay?" she hears someone ask.

She realizes where she is now. She's not in her room, but in someone else's, and he is holding her in his arms because of the storm last night. She fell asleep in his arms.

"Kankuro," she says, looking up at him.

"Are you okay?" he asks her again, worried. "You woke up with a start."

She nods. "I'm fine, I promise."

"That's good," he says, relieved. He then blushes and lets go of her. "Okay, before you start thinking that I took advantage of you or whatever, I just want you to know that didn't happen. You were scared because of the thunderstorm last night," he explained, "and I didn't want to leave you alone frightened like that in your room, so I offered that you could sleep in here. You did, but you had trouble falling asleep, so I held you. Then I fell asleep with you still there."

"I know," Mikkay said, smiling slightly. "Don't worry; I wasn't going to smack you. I remember what happened. Thank you, Kankuro. That was really nice of you. Here," she got up off the bed and heading towards the door, stopping when she got there, "I'm going to make you breakfast as a thank you gift."

"Thanks," Kankuro said.

"I'll call you when it's done," she told him, leaving the room. She walked out into the living room and crossed it, going into the kitchen part of the apartment. She looked in the cabinets and took out the ingredients to make Kankuro sausage patties and scrambled eggs. She cracked about five eggs real quick – she thought that would be enough for the both of them – and then she began to cook the sausage because she knew that it would only take a few minutes to make.

As she cooked, Mikkay allowed for her mind to wander. Sausage and eggs were fairly easy to make, so she knew that she wouldn't screw them up. She couldn't help that her mind kept wandering, though – it was that the damned nightmare that she had the previous night kept on pestering her and she didn't know why.

It was such a weird dream. It wasn't even that frightening, if she really thought about it. She was already used to being alone being that she lived by herself and hadn't had a family in about twelve years. She wasn't afraid of being alone because she already was. As for the dark, she got over that fear when she was three years old. The dark didn't bother her anymore. The only thing in that dream that seemed to really bother her was the fact that she was looking for Kankuro and he wasn't there. That must be it, she realized. Losing Kankuro scared the fuck out of her, it seemed. But why? It wasn't like they were dating, or anything. She didn't like him like that, or, at least, she didn't think she did.

"Kankuro!" she calls. "Breakfast is ready. Come and get it."

He walked in a few minutes later and she had already set both plates of sausage and eggs at the table. She was in the middle of cleaning out the skillets that she had used when he walked in.

"Yum," he said. "That smells great."

"Tastes great, too," she told him. "I'm a great cook."

She sat down just as Kankuro was taking his first bite. "You're right," he told her. "This is delicious."

"Thank you," she smiled.

"So what's the plan for the meeting today?" Kankuro asked.

"Well," she started, taking a nibble of her sausage patty, "the meeting starts at noon, and I'm guessing that you're going to have to stay out in the lobby again while I talk to those delegates about getting this peace treaty with Suna. Yeah," she said, "that's pretty much it."

"Oh, fun," he said, finishing off his eggs. "Good luck, Mikkay."

"Thanks," she said. "I'll need it, considering there's this one delegate that practically has a hard-on for staying against the Sand. It's really freaking annoying."

"I bet." Kankuro took his plate to the sink. "Hurry up. We don't want to be late."

"I'm almost done," she told him, stuffing the last bit of sausage in her mouth. "Hold on."

He laughed as he saw her get up and put her stuff in the sink with half a sausage patty hanging out of her mouth. "That's hot."

Mikkay blushed and ate the rest of the sausage. "Oh, shut up."

About two hours later, Mikkay was standing in front of the council, pleading her case. "I believe there is nothing more that either country can gain by being at ends with each other," she told the council. "Both the Sand and the Cloud stand to gain a lot by going into an alliance. We will come to the aid of the Cloud if and when our aide is needed. Neither of us will invade nor attack the other, or the alliance will be over. An alliance for both of our countries will be beneficiary. There is no ulterior motive," she said this looking over at the man who was convinced that this entire peace negotiation was a conspiracy with ulterior motives – they had been arguing for the better part of an hour and a half and she was tired of it. It was annoying. "I promise you; we only offer up this treaty with the best intentions in mind."

The Daimyo looked at the Sunan diplomat and nodded approvingly. "I think our mind has been made up." He paused and Mikkay stood there patiently as she waited for him to tell the answer to the negotiation of peace between their two countries. "The Cloud will gladly agree to the peace treaty that has been presented to us by the Sand." Mikkay smiled, glad that she had succeeded in her mission. "Tomorrow a peace treaty ceremony will be held at three o'clock in front of the town. Are you at liberty to sign this document for the Kazekage?"

"As the head diplomat of Suna," she started to explain, "I am allowed to sign any treaty for the Kazekage, as long as he had presented it. In this case, Kazekage-same was so faithful and trusting to my abilities of a diplomat that he already had a peace treaty document ready for the signing with his signature already on it. It is in my bag." She reached into her bag that she held and pulled out a piece of parchment that she had received from Gaara and placed it on the table. "You are free to look that over before the ceremony."

The document made its way down the table and to the Daimyo. He skimmed over the document and then rolled it back up to where it was before. "I shall look this over tonight. Will you come to the town hall where the ceremony will be held an hour early in case I have any concerns regarding this treaty?"

"But of course, Daimyo-same," she said.

"Good. You are now dismissed. I will see you tomorrow at the town hall at two o'clock."

Mikkay bowed respectfully to the Daimyo and then exited the board room. She was so proud of herself. She couldn't wait to tell Kankuro the news.

She entered the lobby and found Kankuro sitting where she had left him. When he saw that she came back, he stood.

"Well?" he asked. "So how did it go?"

"There's a ceremony tomorrow at three," she said, smiling. "The Daimyo is going to sign the treaty!"

"Great job, Mikkay," he grinned. "I knew you could do it."

Excited, Mikkay jumped into his arms, and they hugged. Suddenly realizing what the two were doing, they released and backed away from each other, blushing.

"So…" she said. "You want to go get lunch?"

"Sure," he said, scratching the back of his head. He was still embarrassed from that hug. "What are you in the mood for?"

"Ramen," Mikkay told him. "Ramen sounds amazing right now."

"Okay," he replied. "We'll go to the place we went to before."

"Sounds good."

They walked the five minute walk to the ramen shop they went two days before. Again, that waitress Keiko was there behind the counter.

"Oh!" she said when she saw the two. "You're back! Let me guess, mushroom miso and chicken miso?"

"That's right," Mikkay smiled, sitting down at the counter. "You remembered."

"How could I forget such a cute argument about whether or not it was boring?" the waitress laughed.

Mikkay blushed, remembering the conversation she had with Keiko that day as well – the conversation where Keiko told her that she thought that Kankuro had a crush on her. That caused a little bit of trouble for her and him, but she ignored it. They weren't talking about that right now.

Keiko came back and placed both bowls of ramen on the counter in front of them. "Enjoy your food, guys."

"Thanks," said Kankuro.

"Yeah, thank you," Mikkay agreed.

"Say," she said, looking to Mikkay.

"Um, yes?"

"What's your name?"

"Mikkay," she replied.

"Do you want to hang out with me for a little bit after you're done eating, Mikkay?" Keiko asked. "I get off my shift in a few minutes and I would love to hang out. I get the feeling that you don't get to stay much longer," she laughed. "If it's okay with your boyfriend here, I thought we could wander around the town – just us girls."

Mikkay blushed. "He's not my boyfriend. He's just a friend."

"Sure," she smirked. "So is it okay if she hangs out with me, not-boyfriend?"

Kankuro didn't meet her gaze as he said, "I don't care. It's not up to me what she does and doesn't do, any way. Like you said, I'm not her boyfriend."

"Okay, hun," she said, patting the ninja on the head. "I'll have her back before it gets too late. Mikkay will just show me where she needs to go. Here," she said, now looking at Mikkay, "we'll go whenever you finish your ramen. That okay with you?"

Mikkay nodded. "Yeah, sure, that's fine."

"Good."

Five minutes later, after ramen bowls were taken away and Keiko signed herself out, Mikkay was taken away from the shop in a hurry. They walked down the strip with Keiko promising to show Mikkay all of the really cool places that everyone hangs out. Mikkay nodded, feeling unsure but trusting the girl that was leading her around. Hopefully that wasn't a badly timed misjudgment.

"So," Keiko started, continuing to lead Mikkay through short-cuts in the town. "Why aren't you two dating?"

"Who?" she asked, even though she knew exactly who the waitress was talking about when she said, 'you two.'

"You and your ninja, of course!" she said. "What was his name again?"

"Kankuro."

"Thanks," she smiled. "Well, spill: why aren't you two dating yet? My telling you that I'm pretty sure he likes you was your clue and your chance to get something going with the guy."

"I told him that you thought he liked me," Mikkay defended.

"And?" she prompted.

"He told me that I was accusing him now because a few days prior to that he accused me of the same," the diplomat explained. "I just told him to drop it, and we haven't talked about it since."

"Ugh," the girl groaned. "You two are never going to happen if you don't get the hell off your butt. I know I only just met you," she said, "but I really like to play matchmaker and it kills me to see people that like each other so much not even realize that, one, they like that person, and two, the other person feels the same."

Mikkay smiled at the girl. "That's sweet of you. Though, I don't really feel that way about the guy. Like I said, he's really just a friend."

"Can you see yourself kissing him?' she asked.

She blushed, thinking about the time in the lake. "Kind of, yeah, but only because it actually happened."

Keiko's jaw just about dropped to the pavement. "You two kissed? And you're _still_ not dating! What the heck is wrong with the world?"

"It was a one time thing." _Well, actually two._ "It was my fault, too. I don't know why I did that."

"Uh, I know why. Because you like him!" Keiko seemed really up in arms about this. She was just so amazed how dense two people in love could be about each other.

"I don't like him," she blushed. "It just sort of happened."

"Whatever. I really think you like him."

"Drop it," Mikkay laughed. "You're not getting anywhere."

"Fine, fine. I will. We're here, by the way," Keiko told her. They stood there in front of a fountain in the middle of a park. There were a ton of people hanging around here.

"Wow," Mikkay said. "This is really cool."

"I know right?" Keiko agreed. "We like to come here after sunset. The fountain lights up really nicely. It's so pretty to see."

Mikkay nodded. The lights were on at that moment, and she could see why people hung around it. It was beautiful.

"Keiko!" someone called from behind them. Both girls turned to see a blonde guy walking towards them. "I haven't seen you here in a while," he said, finally stopping in front of them.

"I've been working night shifts recently," Keiko explained. "But today I got off work earlier than usual and I couldn't help but want to show this girl around." She made a gesture at Mikkay. "Jun, this is Mikkay. Mikkay, this is my friend Jun."

Mikkay smiled at the guy. "It's nice to meet you, Jun."

"The pleasure is all mine," he smiled. "Really."

She blushed. This guy was really sweet.

"Did you hear about that ceremony that was going on tomorrow?" Jun said, switching his attention to Keiko for a minute.

"No, there's a ceremony?" she asked.

"Yeah, at town hall," he told her. "There is supposed to be a peace treaty signing, I've heard."

"Oh? With who?"

"Suna."

"Wow, Suna?" Keiko asked, amazed. "I never thought I would live to see that."

"I know," he agreed then turned to Mikkay. "Are you going to the ceremony?"

"Actually," she said, blushing, "I'm going to be in it."

"How..?" he trailed off.

"I'm the Sunan diplomat."

"That's so cool!" Keiko squealed. "See? I told you that Sunan people were cool, Jun. I never really knew why we didn't like them, any way. If they're all like you, then we're just dumb." She laughed.

"Thanks," Mikkay smiled.

"Hey, Mikkay," Jun said. "Are you doing anything after the ceremony?"

She shook her head. "Not that I know of, why?"

"I was wondering if you would like to go out on the town with me," he told her.

"Oh." She looked down. "I mean, sure. I don't see why not. It's not like I have anything else to do."

"Awesome," he smiled. "Meet me by ramen shop that Keiko works at. It's not too far from town hall."

"Sounds like a plan."

"Well, I need to get going," he said. "I'll see you tomorrow."

"Yeah," she said as he walked away. "Tomorrow."

"Oh my, gosh," Keiko said. "He just asked you out!"

"I know," she told her. "I was there."

"What about Kankuro?" she asked, looking concerned.

"What about him?"

"How do you think he's going to feel about you going out with some guy?' she asked. "Some guy, I might add, who isn't him?"

"I think he'll be fine…" she said.

"If you say so," Keiko shrugged.

"I should probably get going, too, now that I think about it," Mikkay told the girl. "Thanks. I had a great time."

"No problem," she smiled. "Do you know where you need to go?"

"Yes," Mikkay said. "I can see the street from here and I remember my way back. I'll be fine. Thank you, though."

"Again," she said, "no problem. Be safe! I have a feeling Kankuro will kill me if you get there harmed."

Mikkay rolled her eyes as she started walking away. "Bye, Keiko."

"Bye!"

As Mikkay made the walk back to the apartment, she couldn't help but think about all that had happened. It was a lot to take in. Keiko was very much convinced that she and Kankuro had feelings for each other. She thought that was weird. Why in the world would she like Kankuro? He only just recently started being nice to her. All those times that he was nice to her, though, were very major. He saved her from those bandits; he bought her that bracelet that she wanted; he held her during a thunderstorm; he let her stay in his room in another thunderstorm where she was scared out of her mind; he hugged her as a congratulations for doing well with the negotiations earlier that day; and he just was so sweet, and nice, and attractive, and a good kisser…

Mikkay gasped, stopping where she was on the sidewalk – good thing there was no one walking behind her, otherwise she would have gotten herself scolded. She was in shock, blushing her face off. She was sure that her face was probably the exact shade of fire. There was just no way. After everything that's happened, she couldn't believe that she was coming to this realization right now of all times.

She liked Kankuro – as in, had romantic feelings for him! _Oh my, god,_ she thought. _Really? Why couldn't I have realized this earlier!_

Now she had to figure a way out of her date. Or she had to figure out a way to use this date with a guy that she really didn't feel too interested in to her advantage. Maybe she could try making Kankuro jealous. First, though, she needed to see if maybe it would. Yeah, she could manage that.

She walked up the stairs to her and Kankuro's shared apartment and turned the key. Again, she found him sitting on the couch. She sighed. Doesn't he ever move?

"You have a good time?" he asked her, not moving his gaze away from the television. She, in turn, stood right in front of it and grinned.

"Yeah, it was awesome," she said. "Thanks for asking."

"Will you move, woman?" he asked.

"No, I like it here," she laughed.

"I'll come over there and move you myself," he threatened.

"Yeah, I would love to see you try."

"Well, you can't say that I didn't warn you." Kankuro got up off the couch and walked over to her. He lifted her up over his shoulder like a fireman would when they rescue someone from a fire.

"Hey!" she said, blushing. "Put me down!"

Kankuro walked over to behind the couch and then put her down there. "Told you I would move you," was all he said before he jumped over the couch and into his seat from before.

Mikkay was still blushing, but she also was staring at his arm muscles. Man, he was strong. _Yepp, I'm so far gone that's now funny._ She remembered that she had a question to ask him.

"Oh, Kankuro?" she asked.

"What?" he replied.

"If a girl wanted to get someone she liked jealous, what would she have to do?" she asked.

_Yeahh… That wasn't obvious at all! God, I hope he doesn't figure this one out._

"How should I know?" he asked. "I'm not a girl."

"Well," she amended, "as a guy, what would make _you _jealous?"

_Again, totally not obvious at all…_

"Hm," he paused. "I guess what would make me jealous would be the girl I like being with another guy. I mean, that would piss me off."

"Dating another guy? Like, flirting and stuff?"

"Yeah," he said, then looked at her. He caught her by the eye. "Why?"

"Nothing, really," she shrugged. "Just wondering. I'm going to go to bed now. Night." She left the room, forming a plan in her head for what she was going to do the next day.

_Sorry, Jun. It's nothing personal._


	12. Chapter 11

**Journey to the Land of Lightening**

Chapter 11

It was quarter till two and together, Kankuro and Mikkay were on their way to town hall. Mikkay had told him before they left that it wasn't far from the ramen shop, so they didn't have to leave too much earlier than needed. During the entire walk, she was feeling a little nervous. It wasn't because of the ceremony, as would be expected. She was by far too used to doing these ceremonies. What did have her nervous, though, was that today she would do her plan that will tell her whether or not Kankuro had the same feelings for her that she just discovered that she had for him.

"So, um, Kankuro?" she said.

"Yeah?" he asked, turning to her.

"You don't have to wait up for me after the ceremony," she told him. "I'll be going out right after."

"Oh?" he said, eyebrow rose. "With who?"

"Well, yesterday while I was out with Keiko," she explained, "I met this guy named Jun and he asked if I would like to see him after the ceremony and I told him that I would."

Kankuro gave her a wary look, but then shrugged. "Okay," he said. "I'll see you back at the apartment, then. We'll be leaving tomorrow since you have that…date, or whatever it is."

"I guess you could call it a date," she said.

"Start packing after you get back, okay?"

She nodded. "Okay, I will."

They walked up the stairs of town hall, having arrived, and went to where the guards in front said the Daimyo would be. They were told that he would be in the Grande Hall of the town hall – don't know why they felt the need to have one of those, but whatever. Regardless, they arrived and were greeted well.

"Hello, Daimyo-sama," Mikkay greeted him as both she and Kankuro bowed, showing their respects. "Did you find anything in the document that you were not pleased with?"

"Actually," he said, sounding very pleased, "I did not. Kazekage-sama did well in the making of this treaty. Send him my respects when you get back to your fine country."

Mikkay smiled. "Will do, Daimyo-sama."

The group spent the duration of the rest of the hour before the ceremony started talking about the economies of both the Sand and the Cloud. At three, they went outside to the Grande Patio – there were a lot of "Grande" things in this hall, it would appear. Once they were on the Grande Patio, they saw that there was a rather large group standing out at the base to witness this. There were a lot of speeches that went on. First there was a speech about the relationship between the two countries before. There was also a speech about the future. Also, there was a speech about how they should take this time to appreciate all that they had. They also talked about both countries for a while.

Basically, it was a long ceremony. Mikkay had to wait a while before she could co-sign the document with the Daimyo. While she waited, she peered into the crowd. She could see Keiko standing in the front of the crowd. That made her smile. She also saw that Jun was with her, and he was looking right at her. Seeing Jun, Mikkay started thinking about her plan. She then started to think about Kankuro. She hoped this worked out well, or she knew she would just be making a fool of herself, and no one ever wanted that.

Finally, it was her turn to present. She gave a speech, saying that she was glad the two countries can finally come together. Her speech wasn't as long as the others, but it still got the job done. She then signed the document underneath Gaara's name. The Daimyo took his turn and then signed his name next to where Gaara's name was. The ceremony was now over. Everyone clapped and then began to scatter.

Mikkay said her respects to the Daimyo and then she was permitted to leave. She went over to where Kankuro was standing, which was in the back – he had to stay in the back with the guards since he was technically the guard of Mikkay.

"Hey," she said.

"Hey," he said back. "Good job."

"Thanks," she smiled.

"You heading out to go on your date now?" he asked her.

"Yeah," she nodded. "I'll see you back at the apartments, okay? You don't have to wait up."

"Okay," he said. "Try to not be too long, all right?"

"I will."

"Bye," he said rather sadly. "I'll see you when you get back."

"Bye." Mikkay went to leave, but then stopped. Hesitantly, she turned back around and hugged him. He stiffed slightly, probably because he was shocked. He was still shocked when she pulled away and smiled at him. "I'll see you later."

With that, she ran off. She was blushing from both jogging down the stairs and her hugging Kankuro. She just thought that she would hug him. She really wanted to, so she did. The girl thought it was funny how he was shocked when she hugged him. It made her giggle. He was just so cute.

It was late when the ceremony stopped, and when she checked her watch as she approached the ramen shop she saw that it was about 7:15.

_Damn, that was a long ceremony. That man can talk!_

Jun was waiting outside the shop for her when she arrived. She hoped that she was appropriately dressed, because Jun seemed to look semi-formally dressed. She wondered where he could be taking her on this date.

"Hey," he said. "You looked good up there tonight."

"Thanks," she smiled. "I saw you there. In the crowd."

"Nice," he said. "So are you hungry?"

"Starved," she told him. "Where are we going? The ramen shop?"

"No. We're going somewhere just a tad bit fancier. Follow me."

Together they walked through the town. She followed behind him slightly the entire time because she had no idea where this guy was taking her. It was a long walk, and he didn't say a thing to her. She was feeling sort of uncomfortable. This wasn't much of a date yet.

They got to this semi-formal place called Cha-Cha's. They already had a table reserved for them, Jun explained, because he had called while he waited for her to arrive at the ramen shop earlier. Cha-Cha's had good food, but you didn't have to be dressed a certain way to get in. Good thing, too, because otherwise Mikkay would have had to go back to the apartments and changed, and Jun knew she probably wouldn't have done that – and she didn't so he was right.

The dinner lasted about an hour and a half. The food was freaking delicious, she thought. The only thing that really bothered her was the awkward silence that passed between the two of them. They didn't really talk about anything. When they did talk about something, it was about Jun. He didn't really seem interested in getting to know here. It was annoying. It was early on in the date and she was already very much convinced that she did not like the guy. He didn't even compare with Kankuro. It was a waste of her time, but she still had to get Kankuro jealous, so she persevered.

After the dinner, Jun took Mikkay to the shopping district. They spend the better part of two hours going through shops. Mikkay liked looking at clothes, jewelry, books, etc. That she found fun. Though, the entire time that she was with Jun, she was thinking about how she and Kankuro did this in that other small village that was off of the Land of Rice Patties. It was way more fun when she was with Kankuro. Not only did he buy her things that she wanted – which made her smile like a silly school girl – but she also liked him way more than she liked Jun. Jun was okay, but Kankuro was amazing.

At 10:30, Mikkay wanted to go back to the apartments. The date had lasted about three hours, and she was done. She wanted to get back and see Kankuro. That would make this night so much better.

"I had a wonderful time, Jun," she told the boy. "Thanks for showing me a good time."

"No problem," he said.

"Maybe I'll see you around. Until then, goodbye."

Mikkay turned to leave. She knew which way she had to go in order to return to the apartment. It hadn't been a week, but she had been walking around so much that she was beginning to remember her way around his town. As she was walking away, she felt a hand grab onto her wrist and pull her back. She gasped. "Jun?" she said. "What's going on? Let me go."

Suddenly, she felt a cold object press against her neck. She gasped. Was that a kunai? Oh, no. This definitely was not good. Why the heck was Jun pressing a kunai against her cheek? Was he a ninja or something? What did she do wrong? What's going on?

"You know," he said, "I never wanted to ever meet one of you Sunan scum. I most definitely didn't want to ever be in an alliance with your damn country. Your country is worse than dirt, and so are your people. I always hated Suna. Ever since you killed my family in an ambush, I knew that Sunan people were no fucking good. I'm going to get you back. I'm going to kill you and your Kazekage will never know about the treaty being signed. You'll die and a messenger bird will be sent back with the wrong document. No one will ever know a thing."

"I'm sorry, Jun," she said. "I'm sorry someone from my country killed your people – your family. That doesn't mean you have to get even by killing me, though. It wasn't personally against you, I promise. I know how it is for your parents to be killed in a mission – mine were, too. It's okay."

"Stop fucking talking," he threatened, pressing the kunai against her cheek more. "I'm going to kill you. You're going to die tonight, Mikkay."

Her mind was going a mile a minute. She gasped as she felt a sharp pain in her cheek and something warm run down it. Was that her blood? Oh, no. God, why did this have to happen to her? She had to be dumb and agree to go out with this guy. What a smart idea – not.

She was so scared. She needed some help.

"Kankuro!"


	13. Chapter 12

**Journey to the Land of Lightening**

Chapter 12

"Kankuro!" she yelled out suddenly.

She thought that Jun would stab her in the face when she did that, but he didn't. Instead, she heard a grunt, and then him gasping for breathe. She feels the kunai ease away from her face and then she hears it clatter against the ground. Jun was no longer touching her and he fell to the floor, too.

_What just happened? Why aren't I dead? Why is he on the ground? Is he dead?_

Mikkay turned around and gasped at what she saw. Kankuro was standing there behind her and Jun was now on the ground. She saw that he was bleeding out from a wound in his side. It was deep, and he was bleeding out quickly. If wasn't dead, he would be in a minute – she was sure of it.

She looked at Kankuro, who was putting away his bloody kunai. She was so happy to see him. She ran over to him and embraced her once again savior in a hug. "Kankuro!" she said. "Thank god you showed up! I thought I was going to die. You saved my life."

Kankuro pushed her away from him. Mikkay looked at him, hurt. Why would he do that? His eyes were cold as he looked at her. It was nothing that she had ever seen before. He takes her by the wrist – gosh, that had happened to her too many times in the passed few minutes – and he led her down the street.

"Where are we going?" she asked.

"We need to get away from the body," he told her. "No one is going to like seeing the Sunan diplomat and her ninja body guard standing around the dead body of one of their people."

"Oh," she said. "Gotcha."

He led her to a secluded alleyway. He stopped and started to pull out things from his pack like a bandage and disinfectant. Kankuro then began to treat her wound for her in silence. Mikkay was really worried. Was he mad at her? Why was he mad at her? Sure, she had almost gotten herself killed, but that wasn't enough to piss him off, right?

"Kankuro…?" she said quietly.

He didn't respond.

"What's wrong, Kankuro? You're mad at me, I can tell."

Again, she got no response from the guy. Why is it the moment she needs him to talk to her, that is the moment the talkative guy chooses to shut his trap? Heck of a timing he's got, doesn't he?

"Please tell me what's got you so mad."

"Fine," he spat. "You want to know why I'm so mad right now? I'll tell you why I'm mad. You're so fucking dumb, Mikkay. What the hell were you thinking? That guy is a supposed reforming convict. He hates Sunans with a passion. He tried to lead multiple assaults against us for revenge. He's killed a dozen of us. And you went on a date with the guy – a _date_. You're lucky all you got from this guy was a scratch."

Mikkay cowered. He was pissed. She tried to defend herself against his anger. "I –"

"What the hell were you thinking?" he asked her again. "I thought you were smart enough to know not to do something as fucking dumb as that, but I guess not."

Tears began coming to her eyes. This is not what she wanted to happen. All she wanted was him to get jealous and try to win her back, but that's not what's going on. Her plan was really messed up. Everything went wrong. So now he was mad at her, and she hated it.

"I'm sorry!" she sobbed. "I know it was fucking stupid, okay? You don't have to tell me that. This is so dumb, I know. Please don't yell at me. I—I didn't mean for this to happen." She looked at the ground, more tears threatening to flow out of her eyes. Involuntarily, she blurted out, "I just wanted you to like me!"

There was a pause where Kankuro just said nothing. He was shocked out of his mind. He couldn't believe his ears because he wasn't sure whether or not they were lying to him. She couldn't have just said that, could she? "W-wait, what?"

Mikkay began to explain herself through her tears. She did not look him in the eye as she told him her side of this crazy story. "I w-was trying to get you j-jealous. I thought that if I went on a date with this guy, m-maybe I could find out whether o-or not you actually liked me…like, as a girl…in a romantic way… I know," she sighed, defeated. "I'm dumb. I'm so dumb. I don't know why I thought that would work. In fact, I'm a fucking stupid woman for thinking that this would work. I don't know why I even thought of this whole thing. I'm pretty sure that you really don't like me like that. But it's just that after talking with Keiko, she made me realize that I had feelings for you and I wanted to know if you liked me, too. It was just something that I had to find out. I'm sorry it got me in this mess. I'm sorry it got _you_ into this mess," she cried. "I'm really sorry."

Her gaze was on the ground. She couldn't bear to look this guy directly into his eyes. She feared what she would see. Mikkay was pretty sure that if she looked up at her ninja escort, she would see humor in his eyes. He would laugh at her. Yes, she's made a fool of herself, and she knew that they both knew it. Kankuro would laugh at her, and it was all she was going to get from him. He didn't like her. He didn't like her at all; especially not after all the trouble she put him through this evening.

She then felt his hand cup the surface of his chin and tilt her head up. Suddenly, Mikkay found herself doing exactly what she was trying to avoid – looking into Kankuro's eyes. She surprised at the look on his face. He wasn't laughing at her. In fact, he kind of looked…affectionate.

"I'm sorry," he said. "I shouldn't have called you dumb. You're not dumb. How were you supposed to know he was a convict? You're a diplomat, not a ninja. It isn't your job to know who's all after Suna. That's my job. I shouldn't have yelled. I'm sorry I was so tough on you."

Mikkay blushed from him touching her. She looked down and away from him. "It's okay, Kankuro." Why couldn't he just leave her be? It was easier to deal with his rejection if he wasn't being so nice to her. Why did he have to care?

"And on that other thing," he said, "you're not dumb, either. I have something to tell you, Mikkay."

She gulped. _Here it comes. 'Mikkay, you're an idiot. Of course I don't like you. Why would you ever think that? We're just friends, and barely even that. Those kisses were mistakes, you said so yourself. Just leave it alone.'_

"I like you, too. I've always liked you, Mikkay."

Her eyes snapped back up to where she was looking him directly in the eyes. _Well…um, that was unexpected._

"Actually," he said, "I'm pretty much in love with you. I have been for a very long time. I know I didn't exactly act like it while we were in Suna, and I apologize for that. I just didn't know how to get to you. I tried talking to you like I did any other girl, but that didn't work. You have this shell around you, Mikkay, and I didn't know how to get through it. I decided that I would be a jerk to you so I would at least be okay with just talking to you all the time, even if it wasn't very nice things being said to me – though, to be fair, it wasn't nice things being said to you, either. I just wanted to talk to you. You're beautiful and you have this light that's around you. I could see it when I saw you with Temari sometimes.

"Being on this mission with you has made me like you even more, though. I learned so much about you that I didn't know before. It was like that wall finally came down and you let me in. Your weaknesses just make you a person, Mikkay. I hope you know that. I've started liking you so much more. And, truth be told, the kissing helped." He smirked at her, making Mikkay blushed. "I fell so much more in love with you during this mission. It's good to know that the same thing happened to you, too."

Mikkay was amazed. If only they had realized this all sooner! Not that she would have changed a thing. Truth be told, she liked all the kissing they did, too. Yes, it definitely helped her realize.

She found herself wanting to kiss him. So she fucking did. She took her hands and wrapped them around his neck, pulling him towards her. Her lips pressed against his and, by god, if felt like heaven.


	14. Chapter 13

**Journey to the Land of Lightening**

Chapter 13

**A/N: Okay, so this chapter is basically a PWP – porn without plot. Well, actually, it does have plot. It is apart of the story after all. So, I guess this would be a lemon. I've made it its own chapter so the reader can have the choice of reading this or not. I know some people don't really like having to read a lemon, while others love to read lemons and that's why they probably were reading this story – the lemon, haha. XD No, you do not have to read this chapter in order to get the story. I just wrote this purely for the fun of writing a lemon. Well, enjoy! (: Well, if you want, that is. Haha **

The kiss was everything that they both had been keeping to themselves for a while now. Pent up emotion was released and it was beautiful. Their lips moving together as one, to Mikkay, felt like she had died and gone to heaven. She always did like kissing Kankuro whenever the opportunity arose.

Their mouths moved against each other feverishly – tongues clashes against tongues, teeth nibbled on bottom lips. Mikkay enlaced her fingers in Kankuro's hair – with his hat having been discarded when Mikkay deemed that the fabric was in her damn way – tugging him towards her enough to where it stung at his scalp. He didn't really mind, though. He was too busy holding her by the waist and pulling her roughly against him as well. His hands went down and grabbed her hard on the ass. She groaned, her chest pressing against his chest. He lifted her up by the ass and lifted one of her legs so it was up around his waist. She had no choice but to wrap both her legs around his waist, leaving her suspended in the air with no support but his body. Her arms wrapped themselves tighter around Kankuro's neck and, after she had let go of the hold she had on his hair with her fingers, her nails ran down his back, making him groan this time.

Impatient with not being able to feel her skin against his own, Kankuro pushed the girl up against the wall – which didn't take much considering he had her wrapped around his waist, literally. He broke the kiss and let go of her ass. With his hands now all freed up, he took off his shirt, leaving his toned chest exposed. Mikkay wasted no time after she saw his chest and began to run her hands down the muscular boy's abs since she no longer had to hold on with her having the wall as her support. Tentatively, she put her head down to his neck and started running her tongue along his sweet, salty from sweat skin, looking for his sweet spot. As she did this, she allowed her hands to continue their exploration of his abs and pecks. Her fingers grazed against his nipples, making him groan. He was already turned on from having her kiss and lick all over his neck. Her touching him was almost like torture – a torture that he very much enjoyed.

Mikkay found his sweet spot as she began to explore the crevasse between his shoulder and his neck. She then began to leave soft, sucking kisses along that line of his neck. He groaned as she took her teeth and nipped his skin just a little.

"Mikkay," he groaned out huskily. "Don't tease me, woman."

She smirked, loving that she was able to get a response from him. In reply, she then bit his neck harder, but didn't bite hard enough to draw blood. Kankuro groaned out loud, not being able to contain his response to the pain she just introduced. Roughly, he began to dig his fingers up underneath her shirt. He pushed her away from him slightly – not before she was able to leave a beautiful looking, red hickey on his neck – and he slid his hand up her shirt, trying to get it off of her. He pulled it from over her head and then pushed her up against the wall. Mikkay swore from the pain of her now exposed back being scratched against the rough surface of the brick wall, closing her eyes and arching her back just slightly. Kankuro went to attack her neck with his mouth, kissing and licking all over, leading a trail to the edge of her bra, which covered her breasts. She moaned, innerly cursing the fabric that was in his way. She probably wanted his tongue on her as much as he wanted his tongue on her, as well.

Kankuro's face went down lower on her chest, and she felt the wet trail of his tongue licking along the outline of her bra. His hands lay resting on her thighs, curving in so he was mere inches away from her sex. The anticipation of his hands eventually going to work her there made her excruciatingly wet. She wiggled, trying to either make Kankuro take off her damn bra or get him to give her throbbing core some attention. Either was fine with her as long as he did whatever he was going to do quickly. She felt like she was dying from this long, torturous wait.

He smirked and ran his teeth to the frontal clasp of her bra, teasing her with him scraping his teeth against it, but not going to un-do the clasp. He busied his hands by moving them up and down both of her thighs slowly, never going close enough to her vagina. She whined a little bit, making the ninja smirk. He knew that his slow pace was killing her, but he was going to do whatever he wanted to the girl. It was his way or no way, and she was going to learn that.

Impatient, Mikkay went and brought her hands to his chest, pushing him away a little. She started moving the straps of her bra down when Kankuro took one of his hands away and grabbed both her wrists – it was easy since her hands were so much smaller than his were. He brought them above her head and gave her a smoldering look.

"Ah, ah, ah," he tsked softly into her ear. "That's not allowed."

"For the love of god," she swore; her voice exasperated. "Please, Kankuro. Please – hurry it up! I'm dying over here." She tried to wiggle her wrists out of his grasp, but she was unable. He was so much stronger than she was. It would be impossible for her to get free.

"Patience, Mikkay," he told her, kissing down her neck and causing her to shiver. While she was occupied with the sensation, he took his chakra strings and wrapped them around her wrists so he wouldn't have to hold them himself. "I'll get to it. You have to wait."

She groaned, but could not utter out a protest because right then he hit her soft spot on her neck. She moaned, leaning back and again pressing her covered breasts against his bare chest.

Her legs were slipping from his waist, so he hitched her up again, pressing her against the wall and grabbing her ass. He worked his way back down her neck, kissing and sucking his way back to her breasts. There were more of them exposed now that the straps had been brought down and off her shoulders. He kissed across her breasts, licking his tongue down the valley in between them and capturing the bead of sweat that slid down it. She moaned and pressed against him more, willing him to take her damn bra off. He took his hands and, finally, unclasped the frontal clasp of her bra, slipping it off her breasts. Mikkay mewed, pleased.

His mouth latched onto her left breast and he started sucking and licking at her pink bud. His hands began to mead and work at the right breast with his hands since his mouth couldn't get to at the moment. She moaned, grinding herself against his waist. She could feel his boner through his pants poke her thigh underneath her skirt.

Mikkay was immensely turned on. She wanted him, and she wanted him _now._ Roughly, she tore her legs away from his waste and pushed Kankuro to the opposite alley wall. Her hands grabbed his wrists and held them in the air, away from her breasts. He looked at her, bewildered at what she just did. She kissed him hard on the mouth now that it had been freed from her B-cups. The kiss was rough, with teeth clanging together and tongues wrestling roughly. When they parted for air, she growled at him, "I'm done fooling around. I want you to fuck me, and I want you to fuck me _now_."

Kankuro smirked at her. "Fine with me." He practically tackled her to the ground. His hand reached under her skirt and he ripped away her panties, exposing her clit to the chilly night breeze. She shivered, knees bent in front of her and legs spread wide. Her back was against the wall and her ass was sitting on the cold ground.

She looked at him; he stood not too far away from her with only his shirt off. She reached up, and started to undo his pants. Her fingers fumbled with the clasps, but finally the article of clothing fell to the ground. He kicked them away from him and knelt down towards her. Kissing her roughly, Kankuro shoved two fingers into her wet, aching core, wanting to get her ready. She gasps, groaning at the pain. Soon, that pain turned into pleasure and she began to grind her hips into his hand, wanting him to go faster and harder. He was happy to oblige, adding another finger to his pumping of the hand.

Mikkay felt like her world was spinning. Her vision was blurry as she said to Kankuro, "I – I think I'm g-gonna –" She wasn't able to finish her sentence when suddenly she got her climax. She screamed out his name in ecstasy, slumping more against the wall. He pulled his hand away from her vagina and licked his fingers.

"You taste great," he said huskily. Mikkay only chuckled at that, still recovering from her blissful orgasm.

"Now many women have you tasted to compare me to?" She was no idiot; she knew that she wasn't the first girl to have sex with him. It didn't bother her, really. She wasn't in love with him at the time – he could do whatever he wanted then.

"Not many, actually," he admitted, kissing up her neck and to her ear. "I felt bad that I liked another girl while fucking them."

That made her want to kiss him. Man, Kankuro was such a lady killer. She took his face in her hands and directed him to her lips. They kissed, her slipping her tongue into his mouth. She won their fight for dominance and rubbed her tongue against the roof of his mouth. He groaned, grinding his clothed cock against her free labia. She ached to feel him inside her. Breaking the kiss, she moved her hands to the waist of his boxers and she yanked down. She gasped at the size of his dick as if bound from the confines of his boxers. It looked so big. How in the world was she going to get that inside of her?

Kankuro chuckled at the look on her face. He eased his way in between her legs, making her stand up in order to get a better angle. "Don't worry," he said to her – she could feel the tip of his penis against her opening and it was making her hazy. "I'll be gentle since you're a virgin, okay? Just tell me if you're in too much pain. I'll stop if you need me to."

His words were reassuring to her. She nodded, giving him the signal that she was ready for him. Slowly, he eased himself inside of her a little at a time. He was half way in, letting her get used to his size. When she nodded again, he rammed the rest of his length into her. She gasped in shock, seeing stars for a minute. At first she felt a little bit of a sting, but when she got used to him, he felt great inside of her. She moaned, grinding her hips to let him know that she wanted him to continue.

He began to pump in and out of her slowly, working up to a fast pace. Mikkay met each and every one of his thrusts with her own. In the quiet of the night, you could hear the sound of their sweaty skin slapping against each other. Kankuro thrust deep inside of her, hitting her g-spot perfectly. She shouted out his name, her nails raking down his back. The feel of her turned him on even more and he began to thrust even faster and harder than he was going before.

She gripped the muscles of his shoulders, holding on for dear life and he hit her g-spot over and over. She was beginning to get lightheaded like she was before and started seeing stars again. She could tell that she was getting close. He could feel her getting close as well when her vaginal walls clenched against his hard dick, sending him close to the edge.

He continued his pumps and she moved her hand down to his dick, running her long finger nails against the skin of his balls, causing him to groan. He could now feel himself about to be sent over the edge. He thrust himself deep into her throbbing pussy, hitting her hard right where she needed him to. Her vaginal walls squeezed even more around his dick as she screamed out, hitting her second orgasm. She yelled his name even louder than she had been and released. He, too, orgasmed, releasing his cum as well.

As Kankuro pulled himself out of her, Mikkay slumped to the ground, scratching her back roughly against the brick wall she was leaning on. She was panting hard. She rested while Kankuro got up from the ground he had also collapsed onto and gathered their clothing. After he had all of their clothes they were wearing, he scooped her into his arms. She cuddled into his sweaty chest, feeling more safe than she had ever felt in her life.

Kankuro took her back to the apartment they had rented and left her to lay on the couch. He quickly packed, knowing that they shouldn't spend the night when he had killed on of their citizens. Sure, it was a convicted criminal, but that didn't matter. He didn't want there to be anything against Suna because of this. He came out of his room, and tossed his stuff onto the floor – he didn't have much. Kankuro went to go to Mikkay's room so he could pack her stuff for her, but when he got in there, he found that she was standing in a fresh bra and panties, her fishnets still on. He went over to her and kissed her. She kissed him back and didn't mind as he pushed her back into the mattress behind her.

After another round of sex, Mikkay finished getting redressed and packed all of her stuff. They left town that night, camping as soon as they were far enough away. Kankuro went to get Mikkay some food from the river they were nearby of and got his shirt wet, causing him to strip it. Mikkay attacked him in kisses, and they had sex for the third time that night. They both knew that this was going to be a fun journey home.

**A/N: So this lemon was a little hard for me to write, honestly. At first, I think the pace was too slow. I've tried to edit it, but nothing turned out well, so I stopped writing it for a while. After reading many lemons recently, I decided to try it again. I used roughly the same pace as the lemons I read, so I think the end of sex was better. The last few paragraphs that had some plot in it of them leaving town I think was a bit rushed. I just wanted to get across that they would probably have sex all the way home since they couldn't get enough of each other. **

**I hoped it turned out well. Thanks for reading (: Sadly, the next chapter will be the final chapter. I really like writing this. It was fun. **

**Until next time, **

**Mickie (:**


	15. Chapter 14

**Journey to the Land of Lightening**

Chapter 14

"It's good to see that your mission was a success," Gaara praised the Sunan diplomat.

"Thank you, Kazekage-sama," Mikkay smiled. "It was difficult at first, but you know I always find a way to pull through for our country."

"That, I do," he said. "You did well, too, Kankuro. I'm glad Mikkay didn't get hurt at all. She usually does."

"She had a few scrapes and bruises," Kankuro told his younger brother, "but, for the most part, she's unharmed. Not much you can do for a klutzy diplomat."

"Oh, shut it," she rolled her eyes.

"There's one more thing I have to mention before you two can go and get some rest," Gaara started.

"Oh?" she asked. "What would that be?"

"On the night that the treaty had been signed, the body of a convict was found on the streets," he informed them.

"Really, now?" Kankuro asked.

"Yes. There were also noise complaints that night as well. Articles of clothing were found shed in an alleyway nearby to the body of the convict." Gaara looked at the two questioningly. "Do you know anything about this?"

"No," Kankuro lied smoothly.

"We went back to our apartment room for the night after the ceremony," Mikkay informed the Kazekage. It wasn't a complete lie; after all, they did go back to their apartment – it just happened to be hours after the ceremony had ended.

"Okay, then," Gaara shrugged. He then caught sight of their hands and nearly did a double take. They were standing in front of him, hand in hand, with their fingers interlaced together. He must be really sleepy not to have noticed that the moment they walked into his office.

"You're holding hands," he stated, quite shocked. He almost couldn't believe that he said that.

Mikkay blushed a light shade of scarlet as she nodded to Gaara. "That, we are."

"What of it?" Kankuro asked.

"You two hate each other," Gaara told them.

"Not anymore, we don't," Mikkay corrected him, smiling.

The red head chuckled, causing the two standing in front of him to raise their brows at him now. This was one of the few times that he had ever laughed; Gaara almost never laughs.

"Apparently, I'm not just a Kazekage; I'm a matchmaker, too."

**A/N:**

**Thanks for reading my very first published story! I know right now I don't have many reviews, favorites, or follows, but not a lot of people read Kankuro OC stories. I love to write them though lol. With the OC, I didn't know what to call her, so I just gave her my nickname at the time. She's always different though ._. personality wise, I mean. I'm going to start to try to name them differently, or at least change her name. I don't know. I'm just not very clever lol.**

**I hope you read my other stories I'm starting to publish too (:**

**xoxo  
Mickie~**


End file.
